Helter Skelter
by RussianWolf7
Summary: The LEP is threatened with a bomb, Holly being it's target. Headquarters doesn't blow up, but Holly's apartment building does. With her inside. Suspence with some romance added in. Used to be called Explosion but decided to name it after a Beatles song.
1. Chapter One : I Me Mine

Disclaimer: I do not own Holly Short, Julius Root, the Lower Elements, the LEP or anything like that. It all belongs to Eoin Colfer so don't sue me.  
  
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Captain Holly Short woke up feeling uneasy. She couldn't think of a reason to be nervous until she glanced at the calendar. Ah, yes. Today was the 21st of April. That meant to day was the 10th anniversary of-  
  
"No! Don't go there!" she mentally scolded herself. "You don't have time. You need to get ready for work."  
  
Holly sighed and got out of bed, quickly showered, dressed and went to work. She was surprised to see that the LEP headquarters looked calm and almost too quiet. There were guards stationed around the building holding what looked like extremely nasty weapons. One stopped her as she tried to walk inside.  
  
"I work here!" Holly protested. "I'm Captain Holly Short in Recon!"  
  
"May I see your badge?" the guard asked.  
  
Glaring, Holly flashed her badge at the guard when then stepped aside. Holly rushed past him and into her office before Root could yell at her for being late.  
  
"D'Arvit," she swore at the note on her desk telling her to go see Root. She wearily trudged to her commander's office, expecting a lecture on something-or-other. Holly knocked softly and entered when she heart his grunt of approval.  
  
"I got your note, sir," she said, sitting down.  
  
Root looked up from his papers. "I'm sure you realize that today is the tenth anniversary of-"  
  
"Yes, I know," Holly interrupted, not wanting to hear it out loud.  
  
Root glared at her for interrupting. "As I'm sure you could tell when you came in, security is extremely tight." He paused.  
  
"How does this affect me?" Holly prompted when he still hadn't said anything.  
  
Root sighed and let some of his hidden worry show in his face. "There was a threat," he said slowly. "Several. They seem serious."  
  
Holly felt her breath catch in her throat. "Has the building been checked?"  
  
Rot nodded. "Yes, and nothing turned up."  
  
"Then why are you telling me this?" Holly asked nervously. "What aren't you saying?"  
  
"Short . . ." Root started. "Holly, last time your sister was killed. In this threat, they threatened you."  
  
Holly paled. "W-what? Why?"  
  
"I don't know," Root lied. "I didn't want to tell you, but I thought you might want to go home."  
  
"No, I'll stay," Holly replied. "My job is more important than I am."  
  
"Then . . . be careful," Root said stiffly. "Don't do anything stupid."  
  
"I won't," Holly responded.  
  
"You can go," Root dismissed. "I you change your mind and want to leave, just let me know."  
  
"Do you want me to go?" Holly asked.  
  
"Well, yes, I suppose I do," Root answered grudgingly.  
  
"Why? Why do you care so much" Holly asked, touched.  
  
"They want to kill you because you are the first woman in Recon history. I don't want your career, or life, to end because of a terrorist attack," Root finally explained.  
  
"Then I shouldn't leave because they would win," Holly replied. "I'll be fine."  
  
"Be careful," Root cautioned one last time before he returned to the stack of papers on his desk.  
  
"I will," Holly repeated warmly and returned to her desk with a slight smile on her face. Even though she knew that she was in danger, she couldn't help but feel a little honoured that all this fuss was about her. Her smile vanished when she saw what was on her desk. Holly picked it up as if it might biter her and went back to Root's office.  
  
"Root?" She called out in a shaky voice, not bothering with formalities.  
  
"Short? What's wrong? Come in," Root called out.  
  
Holly walked into his office and sat down again, putting the note on his desk. "This was on my desk. Under the note from you."  
  
Root quickly read the letter and put it back down. "If I ordered you to go home, would you?"  
  
"No," Holly replied. "If I leave now, they win."  
  
Root sighed. "I didn't think so. Go stay with Foaly in the Ops booth then."  
  
"Yes, sir," Holly agreed grudgingly and left, the words still ringing in her ears. *You're next.*  
  
Root shook his head. She was far too stubborn for her own good.  
  
*  
  
Holly knocked on the door of the Ops booth and Foaly quickly let her in.  
  
"Root told me what happened," Foaly said. "I'm sorry."  
  
Holly shrugged. "I'll be fine," she repeated.  
  
"Are you sure?" Foaly asked worriedly.  
  
"Yes!" Holly snapped.  
  
"Want a carrot?" Foaly asked, taking one out of a burlap sack.  
  
Holly glared at him. "No, I don't want a carrot. I want ot go back to my desk and work!" she yelled.  
  
"Touchy," Foaly muttered and took a large bite of the carrot.  
  
"Well, how would you feel, locked in the Ops booth all day?" Holly screamed at him.  
  
"I am, Holly. That's how I do my job," Foaly explained patiently.  
  
"Then how would you like being locked in a room without any work all day long, worried that you're about to be blown up?" she revised loudly.  
  
"Holly, I get your point," Foaly replied, already typing again.  
  
"This is so stupid!" Holly ranted. "I'm fully capable of defending myself! . . ."  
  
Foaly rolled his eyes and continued typing.  
  
Fifteen minutes later, Holly interrupted her rant and asked, "Can I go to the bathroom?"  
  
"Anything to get you out of here," Foaly said sarcastically and opened the doors.  
  
Holly quickly walked out of the Ops booth and forced herself to take her time going to the bathroom.  
  
"Short! I told you to stay in the Ops booth!" a loud voice barked from behind her.  
  
Holly spun around to see a very beet-faced Root standing behind her. "I'm going to the bathroom," she said.  
  
"Already? You've only been here twenty-five minutes!"  
  
"Yes, already," she snapped."  
  
"Don't talk back to me!" Root snapped back.  
  
"If you treat me like a child then I'll act like one!" Holly yelled. "Can I please go to the bathroom now?"  
  
"Can't you wait?" Root asked angrily.  
  
"Until when? I go home in eight hours? I don't think so!" Holly spat.  
  
Looking directly into her fiery hazel eyes, Root said, "Short, I don't want you killed, hurt or in any other way injured. I would order you to go home but I know that you'd just ignore me so I want you to stay in the Ops booth."  
  
"Why do you care so much?" Holly yelled. "I'm replaceable, remember? You could just bring up Frond if I die!"  
  
"Is that what you want? Because I've had to pull a lot of strings to get you to stay in Recon and if you want to go down to Traffic, it will happen in a matter of seconds!" Root hissed.  
  
"You have?" Holly asked, very surprised. "Why?"  
  
"Because you're a good officer, Short. Too stubborn for your own good, but once you get older, you'll most likely grow out of it. In the mean time, go back to the Ops booth!"  
  
"I need to go to the bathroom," Holly replied, no longer yelling.  
  
Root sighed. "Fine. Go to the Ops booth when you're done."  
  
"Yeah, sure," Holly replied distractedly and walked to the bathroom where she stared at her reflection in the mirror. She closed her eyes and saw her sister. Her dead sister. Her perfect sister. Her engaged sister. Her sister who was about to be promoted into Recon when the bomb went off, blowing headquarters to pieces. With her inside. Looking for the bomb. Ironic.  
  
Holly opened her eyes and stared at her own face. Pale, thin, drawn. Scared. Rose had never been scared in her life, even when she was looking for the bomb. Holly watched the tears begin to run down her cheeks. Rose had been her best friend. God, she missed her so much. Holly worriedly wiped her tears away and left the bathroom. She hadn't actually needed to go; she had just needed to think. To remember. To cry.  
  
Holly sighed as she knocked on the door of the Ops booth.  
  
"Ouch," Foaly commented as he opened the doors. "I saw what happened on the monitor."  
  
"I hate him," Holly muttered under her breath. "Doesn't he have any sort of compassion?"  
  
"Nope," Foaly replied. "I thought you knew that by now."  
  
"I guess . . ." Holly trailed off. She sighed. "I don't know. I was brought up that there's some good in everybody."  
  
"Don't give up," Foaly advised. "Just look in other people."  
  
Holly sighed again. "I guess."  
  
"Hee seemed to be really complimenting you, though," Foaly pointed out.  
  
"He feels sorry for me," Holly explained. "My sister died in the blast ten years ago."  
  
"I know," Foaly said sympathetically. "I'm sorry."  
  
"So am I," Holly replied. "But that won't change the past."  
  
"I know," Foaly repeated.  
  
Holly sighed. "If something doesn't happen in the next fifteen minutes, I'm leaving."  
  
"Oh?" Foaly asked, surprised. "I thought you didn't want them to win."  
  
"I don't," Holly agreed. "I'm just bored out of my mind.  
  
"I could show you how the system works," Foaly offered.  
  
"I didn't say I was suicidal," Holly snapped. She sighed again. "I'm sorry. I really should go. I'm too . . . wound up. I'll end up yelling at you."  
  
"If you're sure . . ." Foaly asked sceptically.  
  
"Yeah. See you tomorrow," Holly said and walked to Root's office where she knocked on his door.  
  
"Come in," Root said.  
  
Holly walked in. "If you're sure it's ok, I think I'm going to leave."  
  
Root looked up in surprise. "I thought you were going to stick it out."  
  
Holly sighed and looked down, her face showing how ashamed she was. "I was. I - I . . ." she stopped, not knowing how to explain. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes but refused to let them fall. "I changed my mind," she eventually said, her voice coming out choked. "I will, of course, be back tomorrow."  
  
"Alright," Root said, his voice devoid of any emotion.  
  
Holly looked up. "Are you sure it's ok?"  
  
Root gave her a rare smile. "Holly, considering what's going on, I'm surprised that you stayed this long. It's fine."  
  
"And . . . I'm sorry about earlier," Holly apologized, blushing slightly. "I know I was out of line. I . . . haven't had the best day."  
  
"It's alright," Root replied. "For today," he added as an after thought. "If it ever happens again . . ."  
  
"I know," Holly answered. "I'll be back tomorrow," she said and left, closing the door behind her.  
  
Root stared at the door for a couple of minutes, thinking. He then shook his head for the second time that day and went back to working.  
  
*  
  
Holly collapsed on her bed back at her small apartment, glad to be away from everything at work. She was safe at home. Well, safe from bombs. The problem at home was her thoughts could wander freely.  
  
She let out a loud sigh and turned over to stare at her alarm clock. It didn't look quite right. Brow furrowed, Holly glanced at her watch. It was nine forty-five. She looked at her clock again. It said it was three past midnight.  
  
"What the . . ." she said out loud as she saw the time change to two past midnight. Holly reached pushed the button to change the time, but nothing happened. "D'Arvit," she swore. Holly stared at the clock for a second before her eyes widened in horror. It wasn't her clock. It was the bomb.  
  
"D'Arvit!" she yelled and ran out of her apartment and into the lobby of the building as fast as she could. "There's a bomb!" she yelled at the desk attendant. "It's going to explode in a little over a minute!"  
  
"Wha-"  
  
"Get everybody out!" Holly yelled and started to run towards the doors leading outside. Before she made it, she felt the floors shake and knew that the bomb had exploded. She stopped, unable to move. She could only look up in terror and watch as a large chunk of ceiling fell on top of her, sending her spiralling into unconsciousness.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Root was in the middle of reading a document when his phone rang.  
  
"Commander Root," he said gruffly, picking up the phone.  
  
"Commander, this is Officer Pine. I'm over at 12th Street. An apartment building just blew up," the officer's voice said worriedly.  
  
Root instantly felt his ulcer go into overdrive. "What's the address?" he asked, switching to speaker phone and looking up Holly's address.  
  
"Umm . . . 143 12th Street," Officer Pine answered.  
  
"D'Arvit," Root swore loudly. "That's Captain Short's apartment. Is she alright?"  
  
"I don't see her," the officer said. "Ambulances just arrived, though, as well as fire trucks."  
  
"I'll be there as soon as I can," Root said and hung up. He grabbed his coat and jogged to Ops booth. "Foaly, open up!" he yelled.  
  
"What's the big deal?" Foaly asked, opening the doors.  
  
"Short's apartment just blew up," Root said.  
  
Foaly paled. "I'm coming," he said, hit a couple of buttons and followed Root out of the Ops booth. "Where does she live?"  
  
"143 12th Street," Root quoted. "It's pretty close, but we oughta fly." They reached the front doors and each strapped on a pair of the extra wings hanging on hooks. They quickly flew over to the wreckage. They landed, Root waved his badge and they quickly go through to where fairies were being loaded onto stretchers.  
  
"Where do you suppose Holly is?" Foaly asked, looking at the stretchers and the crowd surrounding them.  
  
"I don't know," Root replied, too nervous to bother yelling. "How would I?"  
  
Foaly ignored his question, walked over to one of the paramedics and began asking questions. Root went over to the remains of the apartment building door and scanned the out coming stretchers. After what seemed like forever, he saw Holly lying on one of the stretchers that was being hurried towards one of the ambulances and ran after it.  
  
"D'Arvit," he whispered under his breath when he saw her. She was unconscious and looked very pale. She was bleeding badly form a wound on her head and the finger that hadn't fully recovered from when it had gotten cut off in the Artic was barely hanging on.  
  
"Oh, Holly," Foaly muttered under his breath, joining Root by her stretcher, which was now being loaded into an ambulance.  
  
"Are you two coming?" the paramedic asked.  
  
"Of course," Foaly said and climbed in after the stretcher.  
  
"Sir, you'll have to go up front with the driver," the paramedic told Root.  
  
"But-"  
  
"Rules are rules and if you keep arguing, she's not going to make it," the fairy said angrily.  
  
Root quickly went up to the front of the ambulance and sat down next to the driver not saying anything. Trying to get the image of Holly out of his head.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
So, how was that? Lemme know if I should continue. 


	2. Chapter Two : Help!

Disclaimer: Not mine.  
  
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Root nervously paced the hallway outside Holly's room waiting for the doctor to be done.  
  
"Julius, calm down," Foaly said from where he was sitting on a bench.  
  
"Calm down?" Root hissed. "I probably just lost my best officer and you're telling me to calm down?"  
  
Foaly backed off. "Fine, fine. Nevermind."  
  
Root opened his mouth to snap at him, but the doctor came out.  
  
"Sir? Are you here about Miss Short?" the doctor asked.  
  
"Yes," Root and Foaly said at the same time, walking over to the doctor.  
  
She smiled at them. "I'm Doctor Birch," she said, shaking their hands. "Miss Short should be ok, but right now she's in a coma. Are either of you related to her?"  
  
"Yeah, he's her husband," Foaly smirked, jerking his head at Root.  
  
Root glared at him. "I'm not. I'm her commander, and Foaly is one of her best friends."  
  
Doctor Birch looked confused, but said, "Only family can see her."  
  
"She doesn't have any family left. Her sister died ten years ago, her father when she was sixty and her mother when she was seventy," Foaly explained.  
  
The doctor sighed. "I guess you two can go in, then, but one at a time. And I'm warning you; she looked really bad. Remember: she is in a coma, so she won't be able to hear you, but you can still talk to her."  
  
Foaly and Root nodded and the doctor walked away.  
  
"Do you want to go in first?" Root asked Foaly.  
  
"No, you can," Foaly answered. "If you don't, you're going to explode and I don't want to be held responsible. Besides, I want to get her flowers."  
  
Root rolled his eyes but quietly opened the door and walked into Holly's room. He pulled a chair over and sat down on the bed next to her. She didn't look any better than when he had seen her before. If anything, she looked worse. Holly was far paler and looked sort of deflated. Her finger was back on, but Root could see stitches which meant it was extremely serious since magic alone couldn't fix it. The place on her head where she had been bleeding was also stitched together and her hair around it was stained red. Remembering what Doctor Birch had said, he started to talk to Holly, telling her that everything was going to be ok, even though he didn't entirely trust the doctor about that.  
  
A knock on the door jarred Root out of his thoughts. "Yeah, come in," he said.  
  
Foaly walked in, holding a bouquet of colourful flowers. "Do you mind if I talk to her for a bit?"  
  
Root shook his head and left, closing the door and sitting where Foaly had been before. He glanced into the room and saw Foaly setting the flowers on the table next to Holly's bed and decided that since he didn't have anything better to do, he could get her some himself.  
  
Root wandered down to the gift shop and looked through the flowers, trying to find a bouquet that wouldn't make it seem like he was in love with her since there were already enough jokes about that going around. Even though Root couldn't figure out why, he guessed that it was because she was the only female in Recon and he had picked her. He wasn't in love with her; it wasn't his fault that she was a good officer.  
  
"Root?" Foaly's voice said from behind him. "What are you doing?" he asked suspiciously.  
  
Root turned around, his face resuming its usual dark purple colour. "Nothing that concerns you. What do you want?"  
  
"Holly's awake if you want to talk to her," Foaly said and then added, "The roses are over there. Y'know, they have a sale on a dozen red roses."  
  
Root glared at him. "Do you want me to slash your budget in half?" he growled before going upstairs and to Holly's room, not bothering to buy flowers. Feeling odd since it was usually the other way around, he knocked gently on the door to her room.  
  
"Come in," a voice that was barely recognizable as Holly's said.  
  
Root opened the door and walked in. "How're you feeling?" he asked stiffly.  
  
Holly sighed and closed her eyes. "If you're going to yell at me, get it over with."  
  
"No, actually, I wanted to know how you were doing," Root snaped.  
  
"Never been better," Holly snapped back. She sighed. "What do you think? I almost died."  
  
"I'm sorry," Root offered, almost making it sound like a question.  
  
"Yeah, well it's your fault for wanting me to go home," Holly said angrily. "I was perfectly safe at work."  
  
"You chose to go home," Root replied, also angry. "Listen, Short, I came in to check on you. If you really don't care, I'll go. Believe me, I have other things to do." That was definitely true. He really had to start finding out who did this.  
  
Holly's angry look softened. "Thanks," she replied. "I'm fine, though. Really. Doctor Pine said I'll have to stay in the hospital at least over night, probably for another two days at least, but I'll be ok."  
  
"Good," Root said and started to leave.  
  
"Root?" Holly called out right before he opened the door to go.  
  
"Yeah?" he replied, turning around.  
  
"Why do you care?" Holly asked honestly, a puzzled look on her face.  
  
"I look after my officers, remember?" Root replied, referring to when they were in the Arctic.  
  
Holly smiled warmly at him. "Yeah, I remember. I also remember that you're notorious for not caring about other fairies, especially me."  
  
Root sighed. He wanted to be angry at her for saying that, but he knew it was true. He walked back over to her bed and sat down on the chair. He opened his mouth to try to explain, but then closed it. He was trying to explain himself? To Captain Holly Short of all people? It seemed impossible. But when he looked at her face, he saw genuine curiosity.  
  
"I don't know," he finally said. "I have to be hard on you; you know that. You're a test case and if you screw up, you are going down to Traffic and Frond is coming up."  
  
"You've said that since I became Captain and I've screwed up plenty of times, yet I'm still here," Holly pointed out. "At one point I know you even threatened to turn in your badge if I was suspended."  
  
Root nodded. "You're good. One of the best, in fact." He paused for a second. "Short, I don't know if you realize this or not, but promotions are coming up, and you're on the list."  
  
Holly stared at him in amazement. "W-what?" she stammered. "That's impossible."  
  
Root shook his head. "I'd get ready to become a Lieutenant if I were you."  
  
"Wow . . . Thank you, sir," Holly breathed. "If," she added, "I don't screw up enough that I'm fired before it happens."  
  
Root grinned at her. "Think of it this way: since you're currently injured and can't leave the hospital, when you eventually get to leave, you'll probably have to stay home for awhile so there'll be less time for you to get into trouble."  
  
Holly paled. "I-I don't have a home," she stammered, just realizing the extent of her situation. "I don't have anything." Holly could feel the tears welling up in her eyes and didn't bother to try to hold them back. "I'm screwed. I don't have a house, money or anything."  
  
"Were you insured?" Root asked.  
  
Holly snorted through her tears. "Yeah, but I have crap. Nothing's going to be worth enough to get a new house or anything."  
  
"Well, if you get promoted, you'll get a raise," Root said uncomfortably, not used to the usually strong Holly Short crying.  
  
"I'm not going to be staying in the hospital for a month!" she yelled. "And even if I did, it would still take forever to save up for a new apartment." Holly started crying harder. "I was about to get kicked out of my old one anyways. I really didn't have enough money for it." She shot Root a withering glare. "Which is actually your fault since you decide the pay."  
  
"How was I supposed to know?" Root snapped. "It's not as if you ever tell me anything."  
  
"And it's not like it would've done any good," Holly spat back. "You never listen to me, and on the rare occasions when you do, you don't do anything about it."  
  
Root sighed and put his head in his hands. "The budget's already stretched, Short. You know that."  
  
"That's not the point!" Holly yelled. "You could've at least shown some understanding, even now! Jesus, Root. I tell you I'm now homeless and you blame it on me for not telling you my personal issues."  
  
"But-"  
  
"Think about it!" she interrupted loudly. "If I had asked you for help, you would've said that it was somehow my fault for not managing my budget well enough. You don't have any good in you whatsoever. It's always about you."  
  
Root stared at Holly in shock at her honesty. He knew deep down that it was true, but that didn't mean he liked to think about it or that he liked hearing it from his officers. He stared into Holly's eyes and she stared back, challenging him to come up with a good response. Eventually he said, "You're right."  
  
Holly's mouth dropped open in surprised. "I'm not going to get fired for saying that?"  
  
"No," Root replied. "In fact, I'm considering rewarding you for it." Holly's mouth opened further and her eyes grew wide. "Since you're complaining that you don't have a place to live, you can stay in my basement. I've been thinking of renting it out anyways, so it's not a big deal. Everything you'll need will be there so we shouldn't have to come into contact at all."  
  
Holly was literally shocked into silence. She closed her mouth but her eyes remained wide, even grew in size, if that's possible. "I . . . you . . . what?" she asked incredulously.  
  
Root could feel his face returning to its usual purple colour. "It even has its own door leading outside so we really don't have to see each other."  
  
"Thank you so much," Holly said, finally not crying anymore. "I don't know what I would've done otherwise."  
  
Root grunted.  
  
Her face fell as she realized something. "But I still have to get all knew clothes and furniture and books and suits and kitchen stuff and everything else that people need."  
  
Root bit his lip in indecision and finally muttered, "I can help."  
  
Holly looked at him oddly. "Are you feeling ok?"  
  
Root glared at her. "Keep in mind, Short, that I can easily withdraw my offers."  
  
Holly smirked at him. "Nevermind. You're feeling fine."  
  
Root continued to glare. "I swear, I don't know why I bother to try to be nice to you."  
  
"Because there's some good in everybody," Holly replied.  
  
Root raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"  
  
Holly felt a blush creeping up her neck. "My parents taught me that and I had always believed them to be right until I met you-" Holly clamped a hand over her mouth. "I didn't mean that."  
  
Root couldn't decide whether to laugh or yell so instead he said emotionlessly, "Why?"  
  
"It's like I said before: you're totally self-centred, you haven't once asked me, or anyone else to my knowledge, their opinion about anything and, even though you don't admit it, you don't really care about your officers. It's like you're a dictator and I know it's supposed to be a democracy," Holly explained. "If you even did something little like put a suggestion box somewhere and actually listened to what people had to say, it would make a big difference. I know it will be hard to do anything because the budget is so low, but you could at least try."  
  
Root seemed to mull it over. "I could . . ." he said slowly. He glanced at Holly and almost seemed nervous. "Could you help? Maybe give some ideas?"  
  
Holly beamed. "I'd love to," she said, and then added, "Sir."  
  
Root waved a hand impatiently. "Forget about that. Do you have any ideas?"  
  
"Well, for starters, you could . . ."  
  
*  
  
A half hour later Foaly walked up to say goodbye to Holly and offer his spare bedroom for her to stay in since her apartment had been blown up. He had decided that he really needed to go back to the Ops booth and was about to knock on the door when he saw that Root was still in there, sitting in the chair and listening intently to something Holly was saying. Foaly raised an eyebrow and listened to what she was talking about.  
  
"– and, even though I know this isn't such a big deal, the chairs are really uncomfortable. I know yours isn't, but-"  
  
"How would you know?" Root asked gruffly.  
  
"It's obvious. You would never put up with an uncomfortable chair. It's hard to work when you can't get comfortable."  
  
Wow, wait a minute, back up. Had Holly really just said that? Foaly stared in amazement as she continued to suggest things, and not necessarily in the politest way. What on earth had happened in that half hour?  
  
"I hate to interrupt your little love fest, but I'm going back to headquarters," Foaly said loudly, coming into the room.  
  
Root and Holly both jerked their heads towards him, faces dark red.  
  
"I was just making suggestions," Holly snapped. "There's nothing wrong with that."  
  
Foaly shrugged. "Whatever. And Holly, do you need a place to stay? Because you can use my spare room if you want."  
  
Holly smiled warmly at him. "Thanks, but I'm staying with Root." Foaly's eyes must've popped out of their sockets because Holly laughed and clarified, "I'm paying."  
  
"No you aren't," Root interrupted. "I said I was going to rent it out; I didn't say I was renting it to you."  
  
Holly felt herself blush. "Really, I can pay for it."  
  
"Holly, I know that you can't," Root replied.  
  
"No, I'm fine, really," Holly stammered, turning darker. She glanced at Foaly, asking with her eyes not to say anything.  
  
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Foaly complied. "Lemme know if you need anything," he said and clomped out of the room.  
  
Holly turned to Root and glared at him. "You don't need to spew the fact that I can't afford another apartment."  
  
"I thought you would've told Foaly," Root replied.  
  
"No, actually, I hadn't told anyone," Holly snapped. "I didn't feel the need since I knew that whining wouldn't help anything."  
  
"Asking for help isn't whining," Root pointed out.  
  
"I don't ask for help," Holly spat. "And you're certainly one to talk."  
  
"I don't need help," Root snapped back.  
  
Holly sighed. "Whatever," she said tiredly and yawned. "I think I'm going to go to sleep, if you don't mind," she added and rolled over, curling herself into a tight ball.  
  
"G'night, Holly," Root said quietly and left, closing the door gently behind him.  
  
Holly smiled softly and congratulated herself on finally getting through to Root. She drifted to sleep, wondering what living with him would be like.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Well, there's the second chapter. Hope y'all like it. Please let me know. 


	3. Chapter Three : Baby's In Black

Disclaimer: Nope. Still not mine.  
  
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Holly woke up confused and disoriented. She sat up and then immediately fell back into bed again, her head pounding. She let out a shaky breath. At least she remembered where she was. Holly tentatively reached up and flinched when her fingers brushed across the gash on her forehead. Why was it taking so long to heal?  
  
Just then a nurse came in and started checking on her.  
  
"Excuse me, but why isn't my head fully healed yet?" Holly asked her.  
  
"It was very bad, miss," she replied. "I'm sure you know that magic can only go so far."  
  
Holly nodded and instantly regretted it. "Yeah, I guess," she replied and settled back into bed. Holly looked at her bedside table and saw that there were two more bouquets of flowers. "Who sent those?" she asked.  
  
"Why don't you read the cards?" the nurse asked and left.  
  
Holly glared at her, wondering when exactly hospitals became so unfriendly. She took the card out of the nearest bouquet and read it. It was from Trouble. Holly smiled slightly to herself, glad that another friend had dropped by, even if she had been asleep. The other card surprised her. It was from Root. Holly's brow furrowed. Could that possibly be right? Shaking her head and continuing to smile, she looked at her flowers. Foaly's were bright and colourful, a welcome change from the plainness of the hospital. Trouble's were softer, showing instead that he cared. Root's were mostly purples with some baby's breath mixed in and Holly decided that they were her favourites.  
  
Holly sighed and settled down in her bed. What was she supposed to do? All of her books had been destroyed in the explosion along with anything else that might entertain her. Not to mention the fact that there was a group of terrorists out to kill her . . .  
  
Holly shivered and snuggled under the covers as if they would protect her. She momentarily wondered how long she had been in here but decided that it didn't really matter because if her head was still in this much pain, she wouldn't be leaving anytime soon.  
  
Holly thought back to when her father was in the hospital and how the whole family had been with him almost the whole time. She felt tears begin to run down her cheeks since she was all that was left. Nobody would bother staying with her the whole time she was in here. Nobody cared that much.  
  
"Jesus, what's wrong with me?" Holly asked herself bitterly. This was the third time within the past couple of days that she had cried and she never cried. "Screw it," she mumbled under breath, not caring anymore and rolling over, trying to fall back asleep.  
  
A couple of minutes later there was a knock on her door. Holly said, "Come in," happy that somebody was coming to visit her. The nurses and doctors never bothered to knock.  
  
"How're you doing?" Holly heard Root's voice ask.  
  
Holly turned around in surprise. "What're you doing here?"  
  
"Seeing how you are," Root replied. He sighed. "I thought you might want some company since I know the last time I was in the hospital, I was bored out of my mind."  
  
Holly felt herself blush. "Thank you, sir," she mumbled. "And thank you for the flowers."  
  
Root grunted, looking down at his feet. This was the first time he had gotten anyone flowers since the Valentine's Day before his wife died. He sighed. That had been over two hundred years ago. There wasn't any point in thinking about her.  
  
"Are you ok?" Holly asked gently.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine," Root said hurriedly, pushing thoughts of his dead wife to the back of his head.  
  
"I really miss Rose, too," Holly replied quietly, knowing what Root had been thinking about. "My sister . . ." she trailed off. "Who was it for you?"  
  
"My wife . . . a little over two hundred years ago," Root answered softly, something very unusual for him. He usually closed off whenever talk turned to his personal life. "In a pod accident."  
  
"I'm sorry," Holly said.  
  
They sat for a couple of minutes without saying anything, thinking.  
  
Root sighed. "I should be going. I'll be back to pick you up around six."  
  
Holly sat up straight in bed. "What? I'm leaving?"  
  
Root mirrored Holly's look of surprise. "They didn't tell you?"  
  
Holly shook her head. "What time is it now?"  
  
Root glanced at his watch. "Midnight."  
  
Holly groaned. "Six hours. Six stupid hours. Six stupid hours of absolutely nothing to do."  
  
Root rolled his eyes. "Would you like a book? They sell them at the gift shop."  
  
"Yeah, sure," Holly said, perking up.  
  
"I'll be back in a couple of minutes," Root replied and returned a few minutes later with a thick book. "This should keep you busy. I know you like horror."  
  
"You do?" Holly asked, surprised, picking up the book. She stared at it without expression for a couple of minutes before finally saying, "This is my favourite. My dad gave me a copy when I was twenty-" She stopped, not wanting to cry in front of Root. "Thanks."  
  
"See you at six," Root said and left.  
  
Holly opened the book and started to reread it, lips moving with the words, quoting. Remembering.  
  
*  
  
Root knocked on the door of Holly's room exactly six hours later. She didn't say anything. "Holly?" he asked, coming into her room.  
  
Holly's head jerked up and she stared at Root with wide eyes. When she saw who it was, she smiled. "Gimme a sec," she said and went back to reading.  
  
"How much do you have left?" Root asked sceptically.  
  
Holly didn't say anything and a couple of seconds later she closed the book triumphantly. "Done. And thanks again. That really is my favourite book."  
  
"Sure," Root said. "Are you ready to go?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess," Holly replied. She blushed. "I - I don't suppose you happened to bring any clothes with you? Or a blanket?"  
  
Root shook his head. "What about the clothes you were wearing during the explosion."  
  
Holly rolled her eyes and jerked her head towards a corner of the room where her clothes, or what was left of them, were lying in a heap on the floor. "Not likely."  
  
Root sighed and took off his oversized jacket which would be positively huge on Holly. "You can borrow this if you want."  
  
Holly looked at it sceptically but took it anyways. "Thanks," she said and went into the small bathroom of her room where she slipped off the jonnie and pulled on Root's jacket. It really was too big for her (it came down to her knees), but that was good, since it covered her more than just the jonnie would have. She folded the robe and came out, put it on the bed and looked at Root. "Did they already check me out?"  
  
He nodded. "My house is only a block away so I figured we could walk."  
  
"In this?" Holly yelled. "Jesus, you're insane!"  
  
"I thought you'd prefer walking to flying," Root snapped.  
  
Holly sighed. "Yeah, I guess," she replied and followed Root out of the hospital and during the short walk to his house, constantly willing herself to be invisible. As soon as they got into his house, Holly let out the breath she had been holding.  
  
"The basement's through that door," Root said, pointing at a door under a staircase.  
  
"Umm . . . do you have any clothes I can borrow?" Holly asked, still blushing.  
  
"I already moved Nichkola's clothes to the dresser downstairs," Root replied. "We can go shopping tomorrow since it's the weekend."  
  
"Who's Nichkola?" Holly asked.  
  
"My wife," Root replied, his eyes taking on a distant look. "Everything you need should be down there."  
  
"Thanks," Holly replied and walked downstairs. She gasped in surprise. The basement wasn't at all like she had expected. It was much more rustic with wooden panelling on the walls and floor and wooden furnishings. It was one big room with the exception of what looked like a bathroom on the far wall. Everything she needed was in here, though. A bed, dresser, desk, table, refrigerator, bookcase, couch, TV and the thousands of other little things fairies need.  
  
Holly walked over to the dresser and started looking through it. The clothes looked well used but very old and Holly suspected that Root hadn't even looked at them since his wife had died until now. "Nichkola had good taste," Holly thought to herself, looking at clothes she would've normally worn. She pulled out a pair of leggings since they fit everyone and an oversized work shirt since she wouldn't have to worry about it fitting her. She glanced in the mirror, flashed herself a happy smile that she didn't believe in, and walked upstairs.  
  
Holly wandered around for a couple of minutes before she found Root in his kitchen, drinking a mug of coffee and reading a thick packet of papers. "Hey," she said, sitting across from him.  
  
Root looked up and chocked on his coffee, spitting it back into the mug. "Why're you wearing my shirt?" he yelled.  
  
"I am?" Holly asked, bright red. "It was in the dresser."  
  
Root nodded, staring at her.  
  
"I'm sorry, but it really isn't that big a deal," Holly snapped and went to her room again to change, wondering why it was such a big deal. It was just a shirt, right?  
  
Once downstairs, she started looking through the dresser, trying to find something in her size, but all of Nichkola's clothes were at least a size too small. Holly stomped upstairs and into the kitchen.  
  
"All of Nichkola's clothes are too small so I'm sorry, but I have to borrow this tonight," Holly replied, somewhat angry that Root was making such a big deal about it and also a little embarrassed that most of his dead wife's clothes were two sizes too small.  
  
Root sighed. "Could you at least borrow a different shirt of mine, then? One with out buttons?"  
  
"Ummm . . . ok," Holly said and followed Root to his bedroom. "Why?"  
  
"None of your business," he snapped, turning red. For some unknown reason, Holly thought he was blushing instead of just being angry.  
  
"Alright," Holly replied, backing off, even though she was very curious why he was embarrassed about a buttoned shirt. When she was inside Root's room, she started looking around. It was plain and very neat with hardly anything that showed his personality. One of the few things was an old-fashioned picture of two young fairies who Holly assumed were Root and Nichkola. They were apparently having a rare picnic in the Upper Elements and were both laughing. Root himself looked happy, something Holly hadn't seen before. Nichkola was beautiful. There wasn't any other word for it. She was thinner than Holly, but in a healthy way. She had very pale skin and black hair that was about half a centimetre above her shoulders. It fell in her face but couldn't obscure the happy twinkle in her green eyes. She was wearing one of Root's button shirts . . . just like the one Holly had been wearing. "That's her, isn't it?" Holly asked, pointing at the picture.  
  
Root looked up from his dresser and over to where Holly was pointing. He walked over and smiled bitterly. "Yeah. That was taken about a week before she died."  
  
"You look happy," Holly commented. "So does she."  
  
"We were," Root said simply and went back to looking for a shirt for Holly.  
  
Holly watched him, wondering where the elf in the picture went.  
  
"Here you go," he said after a couple of minutes, holding up a jade green shirt. Without any buttons.  
  
"Thanks," Holly said and went back down to the basement and changed. Holly grimaced at her reflection in the mirror. She liked the other shirt much better. "Oh, well," she thought to herself. "I can get some tomorrow." Deciding that she had the right to relax before she had to completely refurnish her life and find out who's trying to kill her, she flopped on the couch and turned on the TV. Holly flipped through the channels for a couple of minutes before finally settling on a mudman movie.  
  
*  
  
Root sighed and rolled over in bed again. He couldn't fall asleep, even though he had been in bed for the past hour or two and it was three in the afternoon. Buttons. Holly just had to find that shirt and just had to wear that one, didn't she. Root buried his head in his pillow and finally surrendered to the memories that had been threatening to overwhelm him since he had bought Holly the flowers. Purple flowers. Nichkola's favourite. What had possessed him to do that, he didn't know. But it was done, and Holly had worn that shirt, and he needed to just remember.  
  
~*FLASHBACK*~  
  
Julius and Nichkola laughed as their friend Owen took their picture during one of the rare times when the three of them all had work off.  
  
"Here's your camera," Owen said, handing the camera to Julius.  
  
"Thanks," he said and put it back in the bag. He glanced at Nichkola and then Owen. "Were you planning on, um, staying the whole time?" he asked Owen.  
  
Owen laughed and winked at Julius. "I suppose I could go for a hike . . ." he trailed off. "You two carry on whatever plans you had and I'll leave you alone as long as you promise not to tell me what you two are doing. I swear, you're disgusting."  
  
"So are you," Nichkola called after Owen and turned to her husband. "Now, what were those plans you were talking about?" she asked with a twinkle in her eye.  
  
"Oh, I think you know," Julius said, leaning over and trailing his lips down Nichkola's neck.  
  
"Are you sure, Julius? You always surprise me . . ." she trailed off, moving closer to him and wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him in for a searing kiss.  
  
"That can't be entirely true since you wore that shirt of mine," Julius replied, eyeing the shirt.  
  
"Well, I know how much you love buttons," she said seductively.  
  
"And I know you do, too," Julius replied and began to slowly unbutton her shirt, either kissing or touching her after each button. "I love you, Nikki," he said softly, pushing her down onto the blanket.  
  
"I love you, too, Julius," she whispered and kissed him.  
  
"I'll never leave you," he promised.  
  
"Neither will I," Nichkola pledged and moaned and Julius finished unbuttoning her shirt and started greedily suckling on her breast.  
  
~*END FLASHBACK*~  
  
Root sighed and ignored the tears running down his cheeks. He hadn't thought about her in such a long time. Hadn't thought about their promises. How she had broken hers. He sighed. It was so easy to blame her, but he knew that it wasn't her fault. It wasn't anyone's fault, actually. Nobody had known that the pod had a leak in it. Not until the flare had consumed the pod, instantly turning it into a ball of fire. At least she hadn't suffered.  
  
Root rolled over and finally fell asleep to dreams where he watched Nichkola get into the pod but seeing Holly die.  
  
*  
  
She was crying again and she hated it. Yes, she supposed, she had an excuse, but this was ridiculous. What she had lost, they were only possessions. Physical items. She still had her memories. But everything that her father had given her, that Rose had given her, that her mother had giver her, was gone. She clutched at the heavy comforter on the bed, holding it to her, wishing it was one of the few animals she had had left.  
  
Holly sighed. For tonight, she would allow herself to be a mess. Tonight only. It was a luxury she rarely allowed herself but figured that she really did deserve it. Putting all other thoughts out of her head, she remembered her family.  
  
~*FLASHBACK*~  
  
Holly woke up at six at night, unable to sleep any longer. "Rose!" she called out, climbing down the ladder of the bunk bed she shared with her older sister, and shook her awake. "Rose, wake up!"  
  
Rose groggily sat up, but smiled at her little sister, eyes twinkling. "Merry Christmas, Holly," she said.  
  
"Merry Christmas!" Holly said excitedly. "Can we go wake up Mummy and Daddy?"  
  
"You bet," Rose replied and the two sisters ran into their parents room and jumped on their bed.  
  
"Mummy! Dad!" they yelled in unison. "Wake up! It's Christmas!"  
  
Their parents slowly woke up, smiling at their two young daughters.  
  
"Look in the corner," their mother said.  
  
Both girls ran excitedly to the corner of the room and squealed excitedly at the large pile of presents. They both opened them quickly and climbed into their parents bed with their favourites, Holly's being a large, oversized, stuffed puppy and Rose's a thick book of folktales.  
  
"Will you read them?" rose asked, pushing the book into her father's hands.  
  
"I would be honoured to," he said and began to read the stories.  
  
~*END FLASHBACK*~  
  
Holly sighed. That was ninety years ago, when she was ten and Rose had been fifteen. That was the best Christmas that the Short family had ever had and, until last night, Holly had still had both the puppy, which she had named Ivy, and the book of stories. Holly closed her eyes and recited them to herself, finding comfort in the familiar stories.  
  
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There's chapter three. Hope you enjoyed! Please review! 


	4. Chapter Four : Money

Disclaimer: Still not mine. Never gonna be.  
  
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Root woke up tangled in damp sheets, half way off the bed. In the process of untangling himself, he fell of the rest of the way and landed on the hardwood floor with a loud thud. Swearing, he untangled himself and glanced at the clock. It was already ten. He swore again and went into the shower, hoping it would cleanse himself of the nightmares. It did, and once he was dressed and on his way to the kitchen, he felt much better. Until, that is, he saw Holly sitting at the kitchen table with a steaming mug of coffee.  
  
"What're you doing here?" he said loudly, going and pouring himself a cup of the coffee.  
  
"Eating breakfast. What does it look like?" Holly snapped back.  
  
"Why aren't you downstairs?" Root asked.  
  
"Because I want to go shopping," Holly replied. "Well, I don't particularly want to go shopping, but I need to. I highly doubt that anyone except for blonde bimbos like Frond would like to go shopping."  
  
Root snorted but quickly disguised it as a cough. "How long have you been here?" he asked.  
  
"About fifteen minutes," Holly replied. "I thought you would be up here when I came up and since you weren't, I made some coffee for us to share."  
  
"Thanks," Root replied and quickly drank his cup. "Should we go?"  
  
"Yep," Holly replied, put her mug in the sink and followed Root to the front door where he strapped on a pair of Hummingbird 2000 wings. Holly sighed since she knew she would never own something that high-tech. Not until it was obsolete. "Do you have anything I can borrow?"  
  
"Yeah. There's an extra set in the closet over there," Root replied, pointing to a door next to the basement one.  
  
Holly walked over to the closet and opened it. She jumped backwards as a ton of various useless items that people keep in their closets fell out. "Jesus, Root!" she yelled. "When was the last time you cleaned this place out?"  
  
"Umm . . ." Root trailed off guiltily. "About fifty years ago?"  
  
Holly groaned. "Joy," she mumbled and started looking for a pair of wings. She eventually found a set of the older Hummingbirds and strapped them on. She stepped back and surveyed the mess. "You can clean that up. Later. When we get back."  
  
"Fine," Root replied and went outside with Holly following him. They flew to the nearest mall in silence, both pushing the previous night's thoughts to the back of their head so they could shop without being too distracted.  
  
"Where do you want to go first?" Root asked.  
  
"Clothes, I guess. That won't take very long," Holly replied and started walking towards the discount store.  
  
"Holly, where are you going?" Root asked.  
  
"Clothing shopping?" she offered, surprised.  
  
"There?" Root asked sceptically. "Don't you want to go some place nicer?"  
  
"Don't have enough money," Holly said brusquely and continued to walk towards the store.  
  
Root gently grabbed her arm. "I'm paying, remember?"  
  
"Wouldn't want to inconvenience you," Holly replied. "I always go here. It's fine, really."  
  
"I'm it is, but since it's my money you're spending, can't you at least go where I want you too?" Root asked.  
  
Holly sighed. "Fine. Where do you suggest?"  
  
"Scarlett's?" Root asked, suggesting the fairy equivalent of Banana Republic.  
  
"No way! That's too much," Holly insisted.  
  
"Holly . . ." Root warned.  
  
Grumbling, Holly followed him into the store. "Y'know, I don't think I've ever even been in this store."  
  
"There's a first time for everything," Root replied. "I'll meet you up front."  
  
"Ok," Holly replied and started browsing. She found some cargo pants that looked like they were in her size and tried them on. They did indeed fit so she kept two pairs with her and migrated over to the skirt section, since she did sometimes like some to relax in during the weekends or after a particularly hard day at work. She didn't find any that she liked, though, so she went back to the jeans and picked out two more pairs in her size.  
  
Holly went over to the shirts and started looking through them. She immediately found a light blue sleeveless shirt that she really liked and tried it on. She smiled when it fit her perfectly and went back out, looking at the other shirts. There were some plain black tee shirts, which she got two of, a nice long sleeved v-neck and another v-neck cardigan. She also got two oversized, men's work shirts like the one that she had liked of Root's. Right next to the shirts were the sweaters and found one she liked and settled with that.  
  
She grabbed a couple of packs of underwear, one pair of tights and a bunch of socks before approaching Root with her clothes.  
  
"I know I can't get all of this, but-"  
  
"It's fine," Root interrupted and practically dragged a protesting Holly to checkout.  
  
"But-"  
  
"Holly, you need clothes, and if you get them here, they won't fall apart so you won't need new ones really soon. Besides, you seem to like these," Root explained as the cashier rang up the purchases.  
  
"Well, yes, I do, but that's not the point!" Holly protested. "I can get clothes I like for half this price that won't fall apart."  
  
"Why are you being so stubborn?" Root asked angrily after he paid and he and Holly were standing in the mall street.  
  
"Because it's a waste of money!" Holly exclaimed.  
  
"But it's not your money! It's mine!" Root snapped.  
  
"I don't want to waste your money!" she replied.  
  
"It's not a waste. What else do you need?" Root asked, ending any further debate.  
  
"Nothing while I'm staying in your basement," Holly replied. "Everything I need is there."  
  
"Are you sure? If you don't like the furniture or something, I can get you some you like," Root offered.  
  
Holly stared at him in amazement. "You can't just buy new furniture!" she exclaimed. "That's thousands of dollars when you already have fine furniture!"  
  
"I know, but you'll probably be staying in my basement for a while so if you don't like it or it's uncomfortable, you should be able to get things you like," Root replied. When he saw that she was going to continue to argue, he snapped, "After all that lecturing about the furniture at the LEP, you really have no right to turn me down. Where do you want to go?"  
  
With a slight smile on her face, she suggested, "Carney's Furniture?" the equivalent of Jordan's Furniture.  
  
"Fine," Root replied and led her to the store. "If you want, I can wait here you're your bags," he offered.  
  
"Thanks, but I'd rather have you come and help, if you don't mind," Holly asked.  
  
"Sure," Root replied and followed her into the store. "Where first?" he asked.  
  
"Beds?" she suggested and walked over to the bedroom section. They were soon lost in a seemingly never-ending maze of displays.  
  
"See anything you like?" he asked.  
  
"They only have double beds," Holly replied. "Which is pointless for me since I haven't shared a bed in about thirty years," she added, blushing slightly.  
  
"What about that one?" Root asked, pointing behind Holly to a "Traditional" style twin bed.  
  
Holly walked over to it and circled the bed. "I like it," she finally said. "In fact, I love it."  
  
"Do you want it?" Root asked.  
  
Holly looked at him sceptically. "Are you sure you can afford this?"  
  
Root nodded. "My pay is . . . bigger than yours."  
  
"No, really?" Holly asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "So, what do we do? I haven't bought furniture in . . . Well, I actually don't think I ever have. When I moved into my apartment, my parents gave me the furniture."  
  
"I'm not sure," Root confessed. "Nikki . . . Nichkola took care of that."  
  
Holly saw a sales person walk by. "Excuse me?" she called out.  
  
The fairy turned and walked over to her. "Yes?" he asked in a friendly voice.  
  
"How would we buy this bed?" Holly asked. "Neither of us have really done this before."  
  
"Getting married soon?" the sales person suggested with a slight smile on his face.  
  
Holly and Root both blushed. "No. He's just my friend," Holly said.  
  
"Well, we have that bed in stalk, so you come with me, pay for it, and it will be delivered to your house in about a week," the sales person said and led them towards a cash register. "Credit card, please," he said. Root handed him his card and the sales person quickly swiped it through and handed it back to Root. "Julius Root?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah," he replied. "On 120th Street."  
  
"Ok," the sales person said and handed the card back to Root. "Do you want it assembled?"  
  
"No, thank you," Root answered.  
  
"Alright then. The total charge, tax included, is $472.50," the man said.  
  
Holly glanced at Root.  
  
"That's fine," Root answered for her.  
  
"Here's your receipt," the sales person said, handing Root a piece of paper. "Is there anything else?"  
  
"No, we're fine," Holly said and dragged Root away as well as she could carrying several bags of clothes. "Are you insane?" she hissed. "You're throwing out that money!"  
  
"Holly, you're sounding like me," Root replied, slightly amused.  
  
She stared at him with something remarkably like hatred.  
  
"Now you know how I felt at the LEP. You helped me with that," Root pointed out.  
  
Holly opened her mouth to argue, but she knew he was right. "Are you sure?" she asked one last time.  
  
"Yes," Root replied. "Is there anything else you want?"  
  
"A desk, I guess," Holly replied. "But the bureau is fine."  
  
"Alright," Root replied. "Do you have any idea how to get out of here?"  
  
"None whatsoever," Holly replied, smiling slightly and started wandering off in the direction they had come with Root following her. Eventually they made it out and into the main section of the store.  
  
"Office furniture is over there," Root said, pointing at a division much like they had just been in but with desks and chairs.  
  
Holly immediately rushed over to a foldout desk with a million compartments. "This one," she said instantly.  
  
"Are you sure you don't want to look around some more?" Root asked sceptically.  
  
"Absolutely," Holly said. "I've wanted a desk like this forever."  
  
"One with tons of little compartments?" Root asked.  
  
Holly nodded happily. "Please?"  
  
Root laughed. "Sure," he replied.  
  
Holly continued to smile at him, happy that she was getting the desk and proud that she had made Root laugh. It wasn't an easy task. They quickly paid for the desk, which would also arrive in about a week, and left the store.  
  
"Is there anything else you want?" Root asked.  
  
"Yeah: to go home so I can rest. I'm exhausted," she said.  
  
"Fine by me," Root said and walked with Holly outside to where their wings were. "Do you want some help carrying that?"  
  
"Yeah, thanks," Holly said gratefully, handing Root one of the two bags. They quickly flew to Root's house and, as soon as they went inside, Holly laughed. "I'll put my stuff away and give you Nichkola's while you clean this mess up," she said, indicating to the junk from Root's closet that was lying on the floor.  
  
"Fine! Go ahead and take the easy way out!" Root pretended to snap at Holly as she disappeared into the basement.  
  
Once downstairs, Holly emptied the dresser drawers and put in her new clothes. She brought up Nichkola's clothes and set them down next to Root who was surrounded by several large piles of various items from the closet.  
  
"Something else for you to clean up," Holly joked.  
  
"Could you put those on my bed?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah, sure," Holly answered and picked up the piles of clothes and brought them to Root's bedroom and put them on the bed. Before she left, she looked at the picture again. She wondered if Nichkola's death had made Root the person he was today. And if there was anyway to resurrect that person. With those thoughts in mind, she went back upstairs and sat down on the bottom stair of the main staircase which was next to Root.  
  
"How's it going?" she asked.  
  
"Remind me never to let it go this far again," Root said. "This is ridiculous."  
  
"Never let it go this far again," Holly joked.  
  
"Hah hah. You're funny, Short," Root said dryly.  
  
"Short? What happened to Holly?" she asked, taking the first step in her unformulated plan to bring back the Picture-Root.  
  
Root looked at her. "Why?"  
  
"Why not?" she countered.  
  
Root didn't have a good answer so he went back to sorting through his things.  
  
"Y'know, you could make a lot of money if you had a garage sale," Holly pointed out, gesturing to the largest pile that she had figured out was the throw away pile.  
  
"Is that all you ever think about? Money?" Root asked.  
  
Holly shrugged. "I'm used to working on a small budget."  
  
Root looked at the huge pile that he had been planning on throwing out. "That's a good idea. Thanks."  
  
"Sure," Holly replied. "If you're closet is like this, then I'm sure your attic is even worse so if you also went through that, you could practically open your own store."  
  
Root thought for a second before saying, "If you help me organize it and price everything, I'll split the profit with you."  
  
"What percentage?" she asked.  
  
"I don't know!" Root exclaimed. "30?"  
  
"70," Holly countered, remembering how her father had said to work down.  
  
"No way," Root snapped. "35."  
  
"60," Holly countered.  
  
"40," Root asked angrily.  
  
"50 and no lower," Holly replied.  
  
"No," Root spat and went back to sorting through the closet.  
  
"Are you sure you really want to do it all by yourself? Think about how much you're getting just from your closet and then the added amount from the attic. It's really a huge project," Holly said. "How about this: 50 percent goes to the LEP, 25 for you and 25 for me. We can take donations from other officers and turn it into a fundraiser. That'll help the budget. We could even set it up in the lobby so everybody will see it. I can make signs advertising it and put them up around Haven."  
  
Root looked at her, impressed. "Deal."  
  
They shook on it.  
  
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Here's the fourth chapter. Hope you like it and hope it isn't too out of character. 


	5. Chapter Five : Don't Bother Me

Disclaimer: *sighs* How many times do I have to say it? Still not mine . . .  
  
A/N: Much thanks to all of my reviewers! *hands out root and holly shaped cookies* If anybody has any ideas, please feel free to tell me.  
  
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Holly and Root had been sorting and pricing items for the past couple of hours. Holly sighed in frustration.  
  
"Y'know what?" she snapped angrily.  
  
Root looked up from an old pair of shoes. "What?"  
  
"I don't care how much his coat is worth!" Holly yelled. "I'm hungry!" she said and got up, various items falling off her lap and mingling with the other piles. She stormed off to the kitchen, leaving Root to the mess.  
  
Root got up more carefully, putting the items into the correct piles and then following Holly into the kitchen where he found her staring moodily into the refrigerator. "What was that about?"  
  
"I've been pricing your old crap for the past three hours and I'm hungry! There isn't anything wrong with that!" Holly snapped.  
  
Root blinked, surprised. Sure it was boring, but it really wasn't this big a deal. "You could've stopped earlier."  
  
Holly sighed and sat down at the kitchen table loudly, the refrigerator door still hanging open. "You don't know how lucky you are, do you?"  
  
"Considering that I have no idea what you're talking about, I guess I don't," Root replied, closing the door and sitting down next to Holly.  
  
"You have all of that stuff, as well as the stuff in your attic, which you never use, you never look at, you don't care about at all," Holly started. "Before my apartment had blown up, I had the bare minimum. I had a few things just for fun but most of my stuff was the basics: a bed, a refrigerator, a bathtub." She sighed. "Everything I didn't need, I sold. You have all of this stuff that you don't care about at all that other people could really use."  
  
Root didn't say anything. What was there to say to a speech like that?  
  
"You have so much extra money just sitting in the bank accumulating more extra money when you really should give some to some place that needs it, like the LEP, a charity or somebody like me, although I'd personally drop dead before taking any more of your money," Holly continued. "I can understand if at one point you were planning on raising a family with Nichkola, but she's been dead for over two hundred years and she isn't coming back. I'm sure that if you looked hard enough, you could fall in love again, maybe even with somebody who loves you and wants to have a family as well, but I know that isn't a high priority of yours."  
  
A thought flashed through Root's head almost at random and he quickly pushed it away, not bothering to give it a second thought. "Maybe I'm hoping the right person will find me," Root said softly.  
  
Holly looked at him oddly. "I thought you only cared about work."  
  
"Maybe that's because there's nobody else to care about," Root snapped and left abruptly, going in the general direction of his room. Right before he left, he turned around and added, "And you're one to talk. If I remember correctly, you haven't been with anyone in over thirty years."  
  
Holly stared after him in amazement. She almost went after him, but decided against it. He needed some time to think. So did she. She hadn't thought of it like that before.  
  
*  
  
Root was on his bed, practically fuming. He had knocked Nichkola's old clothes to the floor in anger, not wanting to deal with them now. He could put up with Short - no, Holly – lecturing him about money and the conditions at the LEP, but love? That wasn't even close to being her business. Root highly suspected now that she hadn't ever been in love; if she had, she wouldn't have said that.  
  
*It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all . . .*  
  
The disembodied line floated through his head, although from where, he didn't know. It was a lie; there was little worse than loosing your love. In fact, he realized, there wasn't anything worse.  
  
"Well what if she's right?" a little voice in the back of his head asked. "What if you do only care about work?"  
  
"No . . . that's not true," Root answered himself.  
  
"Give three examples," the voice demanded, taking on the tone of a disbelieving school teacher.  
  
Root thought for a bit. "Foaly . . . he's my friend"  
  
"Two more," the voice snapped.  
  
He thought some more.  
  
"Can't think of any, can you? Maybe that's because there aren't any," the voice reasoned.  
  
"No," Root replied. "Not true."  
  
"Holly?" the voice asked and then disappeared.  
  
"Alright, fine. I care about Holly," Root snapped at the departed voice.  
  
It was instantly back again. "One more."  
  
"There isn't one more," Root grudgingly admitted.  
  
"See? This is your problem!" a new voice said excitedly. A voice that sounded remarkably like a certain female elf's. "This is what you need to fix."  
  
"I don't need to fix anything," Root growled and pushed all the voices to the back of his head. Talking to the little voices in his head while falling asleep in the middle of the day was one thing, but now, when he was supposed to be helping Holly organizing a fundraiser in the middle of the night was completely different.  
  
Root sighed loudly and left the safety of his bedroom, returning to the piles of junk in front of his closet. Holly was apparently still in the kitchen, a fact which he didn't like at all since that let him talk to the voices, but pushed them away and went back to work.  
  
One voice, the one that sounded too much like Holly for his liking, seized on the opportunity and said, "Y'know, maybe if you didn't always push the voices away in favour of work that might help."  
  
"Do I need to repeat myself?" he snapped in his head. "I don't need help."  
  
"Really? Then why are you doing this? You took Holly's help . . . my help," Holly's voice said.  
  
Root stared at the piles around him and, just to spite Holly, started shoving them back in the closet, thinking, "This is why I push away the voices. I get things done when I push them away. I don't when they bother me." When he finished, he went into the kitchen.  
  
"I changed my mind," he snapped at Holly, who was cupping her hands around a steaming mug that smelled like his herbal tea. The herbal tea that he had been planning on having.  
  
"See how similar you are?" the other voice, the one that didn't sound like Holly, said. Root pushed it away again, too angry at everything to deal with any sort of voice other than his own.  
  
Holly looked up in surprise. "About what?"  
  
"The fundraiser," Root spat.  
  
"What?" Holly yelled, standing up so quickly she knocked her chair over backwards. "You can't do that!"  
  
"Why not?" Root roared back. "They're my things and I want them!"  
  
Holly glared at him. "You're just calling it off because I want to," she spat.  
  
"Jesus, how did she know that?" Root asked himself. He recovered quickly enough that he thought – hoped – that Holly hadn't noticed. "No, I'm stopping it because I want my things!" Root yelled and left, slamming the cupboard door closed.  
  
Holly stared after him seething. He had no right to do that. They had shaken on it. Holly ran after him, shouting, "We shook on it!"  
  
"Who's in charge here, Holly? I am!" Root yelled, spinning around to face her.  
  
"Short," she hissed and left, storming downstairs.  
  
Root stared after her and then went back to his room again, deflated.  
  
"Jerk," Holly's voice yelled at him inside his head. "You idiot!"  
  
"Shut up," he told the voice.  
  
"I can't believe you did that! You were getting somewhere with me!" Holly's voice screamed at him.  
  
"Shut up!" he said louder, almost yelling in his head.  
  
"You know I care about you!" Holly snapped at him. "Well, I did. You blew it. She's gone."  
  
"Shut up!" he yelled, either not knowing or caring that he had said it out loud.  
  
*  
  
As soon as Holly was downstairs again, she slammed the power button on the TV and stared moodily at it. It was still on the station from last night that showed mudman movies. This one must've been really old; it was in black and white. Holly sat down on the couch, amused. She hadn't known that things this old still existed.  
  
Holly stared at the screen, wondering if whoever had made this movie was in his right mind. It appeared to show a large roof and somebody falling stiffly over the edge while a voiceover told what was going on. The camera narrowed in on a man holding a wheel as the voiceover spoke. Then a different man ran down the hill with a large pair of wings flying over him.  
  
The scene then changed to the man who had been giving the voiceover and Holly figured out that he had been telling about a dream he had had. Holly settled down to watch the movie, still slightly worried about the director's sanity.  
  
*  
  
Root sat down on his bed again, the picture of himself and Nichkola in his hands. At least one thing Holly had said was right: Nikki was dead, and she wasn't coming back. He had thought that he had realized that, but Holly had made it blindingly obvious that he was still waiting for her to come back. Maybe Holly was right. Maybe he should start thinking about things other than work.  
  
"Isn't that what you were doing?" the voice that wasn't Holly's asked. "Has it really gotten so bad that everything you do *has* to have something to do with work?"  
  
"No, of course not," Root snapped. "What about when Holly and I -"  
  
"Short," Holly's voice interrupted.  
  
Root sighed. "- when Short and I had gone shopping?"  
  
"Two more," the schoolteacher voice demanded again.  
  
"The yard sale-"  
  
"Doesn't count. You stopped because everything in that closet reminded you of Nichkola," the first voice interrupted.  
  
"It did not," Root snapped. "Some of those things weren't even invented then."  
  
"Most were," the same voice said. "And those that weren't, you still associate with her because they're old."  
  
"No," Root replied, but felt his argument wavering.  
  
"Yes," Holly's voice insisted angrily. "And she's why. MOVE ON!" That was it: the voices were gone. And Holly was knocking on his door.  
  
*  
  
The movie was over. It had been ok, certainly very odd. Holly found out that the title had been Spellbound and the director Alfred Hitchcock. The voice vaguely rang a bell, but she couldn't place it. She turned off the TV and yawned; tonight hadn't been an easy night. Holly walked over to the dresser and opened the drawer where she had put the underwear and began looking for the large work shirt she had put in there as pyjamas. The other she was planning on wearing the next day.  
  
"What?" she said out loud, finding something that definitely wasn't hers. Holly pulled it out and shook it out. Part of it fell to the floor and she picked it up, realizing that it was an underwear set. Holly laughed loudly when she realized that they were made of black lace and quite scanty. She walked upstairs and knocked on Root's door, forcing herself not to laugh and not to say something rude when she heard Root acknowledge her.  
  
"I found these in Nichkola's underwear drawer," she said, throwing the lingerie at him. "Must've missed them before."  
  
Root didn't say anything, just turned bright red.  
  
Holly smirked at him and returned to the basement where she changed, turned off the lights and climbed into bed. She couldn't fall asleep. She could only think about Root.  
  
She felt really bad about how she had yelled at him and about telling him to call her Short. She could fix that tomorrow. She wasn't really angry at him; she felt bad for him. He was still so obviously in love with Nichkola.  
  
"What if that isn't a bad thing?" a voice in her head asked her. "It's not like you've ever been in love."  
  
"Yeah, and I'm happy that way," Holly answered herself. It was true, even if it did get a little lonely at times. The time thirty years ago when she had shared a bed with somebody didn't count. He had been her best friend at the time and they had both been curious. It had lasted that night and neither of them had mentioned it again. They would still have been friends except for the fact that he had moved to Atlantis ten years later.  
  
"Are you really?" the voice asked. "If you're happy, then why do you constantly dream about being a mother and a wife? And you just saw that movie: they said that dreams were your subconscious trying to tell you something."  
  
"Then my subconscious is delusional," Holly answered herself.  
  
"Which is it, Holly? You, or your subconscious?" the voice asked.  
  
"Well considering that I can't possibly answer that question because it's my SUBconscious . . ." Holly trailed off, rolling her eyes and the impossible questions she was challenging herself with.  
  
"And last night," the voice said eagerly. "Who was your husband last night?"  
  
"Screw you," Holly hissed, feeling her cheeks heat up. She hadn't thought about that at all except for the five seconds after she had woken up and remembered her dream. She had instantly pushed the dream to the back of her head, never to be heard from again. That was the plan, at least.  
  
"See?" the voice said smugly. "I'm right."  
  
"Only that I dreamed about him," Holly snapped.  
  
"Why shouldn't you dream about him? Or be in love with him?" the voice asked soothingly. "He's really quite a nice man, once you get through to him."  
  
"I hate him!!!" Holly yelled into her pillow. "I never want to see him again!!!"  
  
"Then why don't you move in with Foaly?" the voice asked her. "His pay is probably as big as Root's-"  
  
"Don't say his name," Holly interrupted.  
  
"-as *Root's*, so that isn't an issue. You'd only have to see him at work," the voice reasoned.  
  
"Don't say his name!" Holly yelled inside her head.  
  
"Why?" the voice challenged.  
  
Holly sighed. She knew why. She just didn't care. Not yet.  
  
"You do care," the voice replied. "If you didn't care, you wouldn't have gotten through to him."  
  
"I just pestered him enough," Holly replied. "I *don't* care."  
  
"Then why haven't you stopped thinking about buttons all day long?" the voice asked.  
  
Holly blushed. It was true. They had been on her mind all day. "Because I'm curious why he would blush."  
  
"Well he blushed when you tossed Nichkola's lingerie at him, so maybe it has something to do with that," the voice repeated. It had been over this with Holly many times that day and the lingerie incident had only strengthened its argument.  
  
"No way," Holly replied. In truth, she actually agreed with the voice. She absentmindedly started fingering the buttons on her shirt, wondering what exactly had gone on between Root, Nichkola and buttons.  
  
"Then stop fiddling with *your* buttons," the voice snapped at Holly. "And stop thinking about Nichkola's buttons and how Root must've-"  
  
"Screw you," Holly repeated, but stopped playing with her buttons. "I don't know what he did with them, I don't care what he did with them and I don't want to know what he did with them."  
  
"Really?" the voice asked. "I thought you *liked* the idea of Root playing with Nichkola's buttons. Rather, I thought you liked imagining *you* were Nichkola."  
  
"Bullshit," Holly snapped. That part was true. She hadn't imagined herself as Nichkola. But now the thought was in her head and inescapable. "I hate you," Holly mumbled at the voice, but surrendered to her thoughts, hoping that if she did once, they would go away.  
  
*  
  
Root angrily threw the lingerie into the pile of Nichkola's other clothes. He had completely forgotten about those. He had been thinking about buttons too much.  
  
*Button-man*  
  
Root could clearly hear Nichkola saying that, almost as if she was in bed next to him again. She had called him that so many times, once even in public. Root remembered just how many threats it had taken before Owen had finally promised not to tell anyone. Root could feel himself smiling bitterly at the thought. It actually had been really funny, although then he certainly hadn't thought so.  
  
Root looked at the pile of clothes and remembered the Holly voice telling him to move on. Maybe the first step in doing that was getting rid of the clothes.  
  
"Why don't you give them to charity?" Holly's voice piped up.  
  
"Fine. I'll give them to charity," Root snapped, pretending to be angry. In all honesty, he had been planning on doing that in the couple of seconds it took before Holly's voice had suggested it. That thought in mind, he changed, turned off the lights and fell asleep.  
  
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Fifth chapter done! Please, if you have any ideas, let me know! 


	6. Chapter Six : Run For Your Life

Disclaimer: Again, not mine.  
  
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Holly woke up still angry at herself for how much she had liked her "fantasies" last night. It was just ridiculous that she could possibly think of Root as anything more than a friend. Except it was becoming more and more obvious that she did. But she didn't.  
  
"Admit it, Holly. You're in love with him," the voice said, starting right in.  
  
"I am not," Holly snapped. "This is just my reaction to being with anyone of the male species for an extended period of time."  
  
"Really? It seems to me that you work with them everyday," the voice pestered.  
  
"On a personal level," Holly corrected herself.  
  
"How personal? Just how personal is this becoming?" the voice asked and then left, leaving Holly to think about that.  
  
Holly sighed. This wasn't fair. The voice in her head had always been the devil's advocate, but this was getting ridiculous. She was *not* in love with Julius Root.  
  
"But you *do* need to fix what you said yesterday," the voice said and mentally pushed Holly out of bed.  
  
Holly sighed and got out of bed. She yawned, stretched, and walked up the stairs to Root's bedroom. She knocked on the door and when she didn't hear him reply, she wondered what time it was. Holly shuffled into the kitchen and glanced at the clock. She flinched. It was only five-thirty. She yawned again and went into the living room to wait for Root to wake up. To her surprise, she saw Root sitting on the couch.  
  
"What're you doing up early?" Holly asked him.  
  
Root looked at Holly suddenly. "Couldn't sleep. You?"  
  
"I'm sorry for yesterday," Holly said softly, going over and sitting down next to Root. "I was just jealous that you had all of this extra stuff and I have nothing. I'm also sorry that I said you can't call me Holly. You can."  
  
Root looked at Holly, surprised. He had never seen her looking so . . . vulnerable, even when had been crying in the hospital. It seemed to him that Holly wasn't telling him something. "It's ok," he said.  
  
"Thanks," Holly replied.  
  
They sat in silence for a couple of minutes until Root said, "You were right, though. I need to think about things other than work. And other than Nichkola."  
  
"You still love her, don't you?" Holly asked, although why she wouldn't admit to herself.  
  
Root opened his mouth but realized he didn't know what he was going to say so he closed it again. Eventually, he answered, "I don't know."  
  
Holly toyed with the buttons on her shirt and realized that it was quickly becoming a habit. "Let me know when you find you," she finally said and left.  
  
"Why?" Root asked.  
  
Holly turned around and leaned on the door frame, still fiddling with the buttons. She saw Root stiffen when he saw this but it didn't register so she continued to play with them. Eventually she said, "I don't know," and went back downstairs, thinking about how much she did know.  
  
"Buttons!" Root thought angrily to himself. "Why the *hell* does she have to be wearing buttons?"  
  
"Well maybe she knows-"  
  
"No way. Nobody except for Owen knows and he lives in Atlantis," Root snapped at the voice.  
  
"She might have guessed," the voice suggested. "You *do* keep on blushing whenever she mentions them."  
  
"How could I not?" Root snapped.  
  
"Especially after last night-"  
  
"Last night was bullshit," Root yelled in his head. "Brought on by stress."  
  
"Stress about what?" the voice asked. "Stress that you haven't even *thought* about the fact that somebody tried to kill Holly and blew up her apartment?"  
  
"Shit," Root muttered out loud. He *hadn't* thought about it. In fact, he had completely forgotten about it. Holly had kept his mind on other things.  
  
"Yeah, like buttons," the voice said and cracked up.  
  
"Shut up!" Root hissed in his head and started putting the scant pieces of evidence together.  
  
Through its laughter, the voice said, "Scant, like that lingerie?" and laughed harder.  
  
Root ignored the voice, thinking. He stood up, went to his bedroom and quickly dressed for work. He then went down to the basement to find Holly lying on the bed, still in the work shirt, reading a book.  
  
"What're you reading?" he asked her.  
  
Holly looked up suddenly. "'Time Holders'," she said and went back to reading.  
  
Root felt his breath catch in his throat. "Can I see that for a second?" he asked, using all of his strength to make his voice sound normal.  
  
"Yeah, sure," Holly replied, glanced at the page number and handed the book to Root. "Are you going in?" she asked, noting his clothes.  
  
"Yeah, hang on," he replied distractedly, flipping through the pages until he came to a certain passage. He sighed and handed the book back to Holly. "Yes, I'm going in," he repeated. "I dunno when I'll get back. Hopefully not too late."  
  
"Should I wait to have dinner?" she asked him.  
  
Root looked surprised. "We were going to have dinner together?"  
  
"Why not?" she asked.  
  
Looking as if he had been suddenly jerked out of his own world and thrown into somebody else's, he said, "Yeah, I guess. I'll call if I'll be too late."  
  
"Alright," Holly replied and went back to reading. "See you tonight."  
  
"Yeah," Root replied and left, still feeling as though he was in a daze.  
  
Holly sighed happily to herself, relishing in the fact that she had somebody to ask if he would be home in time for dinner, even if it didn't make all that much sense. Her brow then furrowed, wondering what Root had been looking at. She quickly flipped through the book but found nothing out of the ordinary so resumed reading, figuring that she would either come on it or wouldn't.  
  
*  
  
"Sorry I wasn't in yesterday," Root said to Foaly as he stopped by the Ops booth on the way to his office. "I took Captain Short shopping."  
  
Foaly raised an eyebrow. "I won't ask. How's she been?"  
  
"Ask her," Root replied, not having the slightest clue how to answer that.  
  
"What about you?" Foaly asked, a note of worry in his voice. "You seem really out of it."  
  
Root didn't know how to answer that either. "I'll let you know when I figure it out," he eventually said. "Any leads on the terrorists?"  
  
"Yeah: they're definately the same fairies as last time," Foaly replied, stating the obvious. "Other than that, just like last time. Zilch."  
  
"Well I intend to catch them this time and throw them in Howler's Peak," Root growled.  
  
Foaly glanced at Root. "Are you and Holly together?" he asked.  
  
Root looked at him oddly. "No, of course not. Quite the opposite, in fact. Why?"  
  
Foaly shrugged. "You seem really out of it. You remind me of when my cousin fell in love. And you seem so . . . determined."  
  
Root's eyes took on a gleam. "I'm usually not?" he asked dangerously.  
  
"No, you are . . ." Foaly trailed off and shook his head. "Maybe I'm just imagining it."  
  
"No doubt," Root snapped. "Let me know if anything turns up."  
  
"Of course, your highness," Foaly replied and went back to typing on his computer.  
  
Root grabbed Foaly's sack of carrots on his way out as revenge. Once he was back in his office, his familiar office, his familiar office where nothing was ever out of line, he began to think in earnest, absentmindedly taking a carrot out of the bag and chewing on it, biting down harder than he really needed too.  
  
Who had done this? There weren't any clues, just like last time. Whoever it was had covered their tracks well.  
  
Root sighed and looked down at his desk. A piece of paper caught his eye. A clue. He grabbed the pieces of paper, touching as little of it as possible, and brought the note that Holly had found on her desk on the 21st to Foaly. Root knocked on the door of the Ops booth and Foaly quickly let him in.  
  
"Come to give me back my carrots?" Foaly huffed.  
  
"Clue," Root replied. "Holly found this on her desk on the day of the attack. You might be able to get fingerprints and definitely you can do a handwriting analysis."  
  
"I know what I can do with a handwritten note," Foaly said excitedly, taking the note only after he had put on a pair of gloves. Root had no idea, nor did he want to know, why Foaly had gloves lying around. "Why didn't you show this to me earlier?"  
  
"I forgot," Root admitted grudgingly. "I had other things on my mind."  
  
Foaly snorted. "Yeah, like Holly. Anyways, I'll start in on this now and let you know what turns up."  
  
"Thanks," Root replied, went back to his office and started chewing on another carrot. He was beginning to see why Foaly liked them so much. Stress relievers.  
  
*  
  
A little under five minutes later, Root's phone rang.  
  
"Commander Root," he answered.  
  
"Come down to the Ops booth," Foaly said and then hung up.  
  
Curious that anything could've happened that quickly, Root walked down and was quickly let in. "What?"  
  
Foaly handed Root the note. "Anything look familiar?" he asked.  
  
Root looked at the note angrily. "Foaly, if I had thought anything had looked familiar I would've told you," he snapped.  
  
"Look at the handwriting," Foaly replied. "Doesn't it seem like you've seen it before?"  
  
Now that Foaly mentioned it, it *did* look a little familiar. But he couldn't seem to place it. "Whose is it?" he asked.  
  
"Well, that's the problem," Foaly replied, taking the note back. "As soon as I saw it, the writing looked familiar. It didn't take me long to figure out who's writing it was. Once I figured it out, I checked on the computer. It *is* their writing, but not done by their hand. Somebody's damn good at covering their tracks, though."  
  
"Whose writing is it?" Root repeated tightly.  
  
"Holly's," Foaly finally answered. "She didn't write this, though. No question about it. Somebody is trying awfully hard to make it look as though she did. But do you want to know what the worrisome thing about this is?"  
  
"What do you think, Foaly? What is the worrisome thing about this?" Root snapped.  
  
"Well, whoever did this did a remarkably good job. The only way the computer could tell Holly's writing and this fairy's apart was by how hard he – or she – pressed. That means that whoever did this knows Holly's writing well enough to copy it. Letter for letter. Whoever did this is, she sees everyday. Whoever did this most likely works here," Foaly told Root, trying to sound as dramatic as possible.  
  
Root felt himself pale. "Couldn't somebody have stolen a sample of her writing?" he asked, his voice coming out strangled.  
  
"That's the other possibility," Foaly agreed. "There's no real way to figure out which it is."  
  
Root's face returned to its usual ruddy colour. "Next time you say something with that many implications, make sure it's definitely true," he snapped. "You realize, if that's true, that there's an insane fairy working the in the LEP most likely *as we speak*? In fact, if you're right, then that could quite possibly be why Holly's apartment blew up. Whoever it was could've heard that she was going home, flown over to her house, put the bomb in and left before she got there."  
  
"In which case it would most likely be a sprite since their wings are far more inconspicuous," Foaly suggested. "But keep in mind all of this is just speculating. If there is in fact somebody in the LEP working on this, then that somebody could be the mastermind behind all of this, but most likely, whoever is *really* behind all of this hired somebody to do this for him. Who in the LEP would be stupid enough to do that?"  
  
Root and Foaly exchanged a look.  
  
"Aside from Chix because he's too obsessed with Holly," Foaly added.  
  
They thought for a few minutes before Root replied, "I don't know. I'll let you know if I think of anyone."  
  
"Same," Foaly replied and went back to typing.  
  
Root went back to his office and started on the third carrot of the day. It was then that he realized he had been either so busy helping Holly with her things or eating carrots that he hadn't had a cigar since this had started. He congratulated himself.  
  
*  
  
Holly was bored out of her mind. She didn't know how people without jobs could stand it. Usually, when she was at her own apartment, she had something from one case or another to keep her occupied over the weekends, but here she had nothing. She had finished the book about an hour ago, and now it was five. She figured Root would be getting home around six or seven, but really had no idea. Normally when she left work at exactly six, he was still there, but today was Sunday, so he had it off. Holly sighed.  
  
"Then why don't you start on dinner?" the voice that had been haunting her all day with thoughts of buttons and various other things suggested.  
  
Holly snorted. "He's not going to be home for most likely another two hours."  
  
"Well if you want to sit around either worrying about who tried to kill you and who killed your sister ten years ago, be my guest," the voice snapped. "Or you could do something to keep your mind off that, like make a huge dinner. You haven't treated yourself to something *nice* for dinner in ages."  
  
Holly thought about it. It was true. She couldn't afford to go out for dinner or to get enough really good food to make something nice. So the offer was tempting.  
  
"But what would Root think?" she asked herself.  
  
"Who cares?" the voice replied. "Either get busy living or get busy dying," it said, quoting a line from the first mudman movie she had watched. The title was on the tip of her tongue . . . The something Redemption. Holly went upstairs and started making dinner, still trying to think of the movie.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Well, there's that. I know it's the shortest chapter I've done so far, but I've been updating so much, I hardly think it matters. Thanks much to reviewers.  
  
IF ANYBODY HAS ANY IDEAS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!! 


	7. Chapter Seven : She's Leaving Home

Disclaimer: Nada.  
  
A/N: Have decided that it takes place after the second book but before the third. You'll see why.  
  
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Root wearily unlocked his front door and hung his wings on their hook. Today had not been good. Nothing else had come up so he had basically sat around all day eating Foaly's carrots and thinking. He had thought of a lot of people it *couldn't* be, but none that it could. At least on Monday he would be on his usual shift and not have to worry about when to leave. When he was on his usual shift, he left at exactly eight. Today he had left at six, mainly because he couldn't stand sitting around at work not doing anything.  
  
Root sniffed the air suspiciously. Something smelled good. "Holly?" he called out.  
  
"I'm in the kitchen!" he heard her reply. Curious, Root walked to his kitchen and almost stopped in his tracks. "How're we supposed to eat all this?" he asked.  
  
Holly turned around, blushing slightly. "Leftovers," she replied.  
  
Root shook his head, smiling slightly. "If you're going to do this every night, I might have to keep you around."  
  
Holly laughed. "Just when I'm bored and don't have anything better to do. And I'm warning you: I can't remember the last time I've done anything this extravagant, so it could possibly taste horrible. Are there any leads on the terrorist?"  
  
Root momentarily thought about lying, but then said, "Kind of. At least one of them works in the LEP and knows you well."  
  
Holly's eyes widened. "Why?" she asked.  
  
"The handwriting on that note was yours," Root answered. At Holly's look, he hurriedly added, "But it's not yours. I mean, you didn't do it."  
  
"Obviously," Holly snapped and set the bowl of sauce on the counter. She poured it into a streaming pot of spaghetti and started mixing it. She stopped. "Are you sure there aren't any other clues?"  
  
"Only that whoever is in the LEP might be hired by somebody else, so if you can think of anybody that stupid, I suppose it could be helpful," Root replied, sitting down at the kitchen table.  
  
Holly snorted. "Easy. Frond."  
  
Root sighed. "I already thought of her. She doesn't have a motive. Why would she want to keep women out of Recon when I know for a fact she wants to come up?"  
  
"To get me out so she could go in?" Holly suggested, although she knew the argument wasn't very strong.  
  
"You're being promoted to Lieutenant soon so another woman is coming into Recon as a Captain anyways," Root reasoned. "She knows it's probably going to be her."  
  
"Well maybe she wants to be the first Lieutenant or maybe she has a grudge against me . . . which I know she does," Holly replied.  
  
"I guess . . ." Root trailed off. He sighed again. "She's just not smart enough."  
  
"But if she was bought, she could've easily swiped a sample of my handwriting and dropped off the note," Holly argued.  
  
"But there isn't any evidence against her," Root replied.  
  
"Fingerprints?" Holly suggested. "On the note?"  
  
"Only ours," Root answered.  
  
Holly turned back to the spaghetti and stabbed it angrily with the large wooden fork she had been using to stir it with. "This . . . is . . . not . . . fair," she said angrily, punctuating each word with a stab at the spaghetti.  
  
"Life isn't," Root replied and went over to Holly, gently removing the fork from her grasp. "If you break it into a thousand pieces, it will be practically impossible to eat," he said and put the fork in the sink. He took out two plates, loaded them with the spaghetti and salad that Holly had made and brought them to the kitchen table where Holly was sitting with her head in her hands. Root said the plates down, quickly squeezed Holly's shoulder comfortingly and sat down across from her. "We'll get them, Holly," Root assured her. "I promise, whoever it is, we'll get them and throw them into Howler's Peak for life."  
  
Holly looked up, wiping the stray tears that had leaked from her eyes. "But what about until then?" she asked, her voice coming out high and scared. "For all you know, you're house could be wired and explode sometime this morning." Holly seemed to suddenly realize this. She stood up, saying, "I can't stay here. I can't endanger you."  
  
"Holly, wait," Root called after her retreating form, following her out of the kitchen and to the basement where she was pulling her clothes out of the dresser. "Holly, look at me," Root told her. When she didn't turn around, he went over to her and gently put his hands on her shoulders, turning her so she was facing him. "I can't let you leave. You don't have anywhere else to go."  
  
"And I can't stay here," she replied, shaking free of Root's grip. "I can't endanger you like this. If I die, I'm replaceable. You're the Commander. You know the LEP can't function properly without you. You *can't* die." With that, Holly went upstairs and left, ignoring Root's protests.  
  
*  
  
Once outside, Holly looked around, not knowing where to go. She definitely couldn't stay here, and she definitely couldn't go to Foaly's. In fact, if she didn't want to endanger anyone else, she couldn't go anywhere. Pulling the buttoned shirt close around her, she began walking towards the park that was a few blocks away, praying Root wouldn't come after her.  
  
Once she was there, she found a secluded corner with one of the few trees that had managed to grow below ground and settled against it, knowing that she wouldn't sleep at all that day. She ignored the tears running down her cheeks and instead listened to the steady beat of the traffic, traffic that didn't let up even in the middle of the day.  
  
*  
  
Root sat down on the bed amidst the clothes that Holly had already pulled out and thought about what he should do. Eventually he got up and called all the motels in the area, asking if Holly had been there and telling them to call him if she came. That completed, he went back upstairs and poked the dinner she had made, not eating it.  
  
*  
  
The next day Holly sighed into work, still wearing the filthy buttoned shirt and cargo pants that she had worn the previous night. The first thing she did was go to Root's office and knock on his door.  
  
"Come in," he called out.  
  
Holly walked into his office and sat down at the chair, toying with the buttons as she did so.  
  
"Holly! Where were you?" Root asked.  
  
In a tone of defeat, she said flatly, "I think it would be better if I didn't come into work until the terrorists are caught."  
  
Root stared at her in amazement. Was she really saying this? "Holly, you can't give up. I know that you don't want anyone else to get hurt, but we need you here. Maybe you can think of someone or something that might-"  
  
Holly shook her head. "No," she interrupted in the same flat voice, the one that almost scared Root. "I can't do that to the LEP."  
  
"Then I order you to stay," Root snapped, trying to put on his usual air command instead of comforting her.  
  
"Then I'll disobey your order," Holly replied and started to get up.  
  
"You realize that if you choose to ignore me, you'll lose your chance at a promotion and could possibly lose your job?" he threatened.  
  
"Fine. I can't endanger all of these people. I just can't," she replied and walked out, leaving Root staring after her in amazement. The thought "This can't be happening, this can't be happening" kept running through his head, immobilizing him, preventing him from stopping her.  
  
*  
  
Holly wandered around Haven City at random, trying to figure out where to go. Where could she possibly go where no one would find her? Haven City was big, yes, but that meant there were lost of fairies and not a lot of hiding places.  
  
"Then leave Haven," the voice told her.  
  
"No. That's stupid. Now I'm just panicking," Holly told herself. But the idea did seem rather welcome.  
  
"It's only until the terrorist is caught," the voice urged her. "If you go to Atlantis, you can stay with Yonah and you can still get the news paper so you'll know when the terrorist is caught."  
  
"No . . . Stop. I'm panicking," Holly told herself nervously. She didn't panic. She was, after all, famous for keeping a cool head in difficult situations.  
  
"Or how about above ground?" the voice asked. "You can go to Disneyland Paris, or just stay the woods."  
  
"Definitely panicking," Holly repeated. "I can't go above ground. That's just stupid."  
  
"Really?" the voice teased. "You can get away from everyone, replenish your magic and come back later. Think of it as a vacation."  
  
Hmm . . . it was high time she did the Ritual. In fact, if Root knew how low she was, he'd force her to go above ground. So if she got in trouble . . . "Alright. Fine. But only for one night," she promised herself and started to make her way back to headquarters.  
  
"Oh, no. You can't go *that* way," the voice told her. "If you go *that* way, they'll know where you're going."  
  
"No. The Upper Elements are huge. They couldn't find me," Holly insisted instantly.  
  
"Yes they could," the voice told her. "They could find you and kill you and- "  
  
"Well what do you suggest I do?" Holly snapped, not wanting to hear anymore.  
  
"Well, you of all fairies should know the *other* routs to get up," the voice said eagerly. "You've spent enough time policing them."  
  
"No. I am *not* breaking the law," Holly yelled at the voice in her head.  
  
"Yes, you are," the voice insisted and pushed her towards the nearest illegal way to the surface. "It's only one time."  
  
"I am NOT doing this!" Holly yelled in her head, but found herself walking anyways.  
  
"It's easier once you start walking, Holly," the voice said.  
  
She couldn't argue that. Once she was walking, it *did* seem very easy to just keep on going. Pushing the thoughts of what she was doing to the back of her head, she jogged to the nearest way up.  
  
When she caught sight of the entrance in the deserted tunnel she was in now, she started to think about what she was doing again. Was she really going to take an illegal flare up to the surface because of terrorists? Was she really running away?  
  
"Just for a while," the voice said and pushed her doubts to the back of her head.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Holly stepped out of the shadows and walked over to the elf that was guarding the entrance. His eyes narrow on seeing her.  
  
"What do you want?" he asked gruffly.  
  
"To go up," Holly said simply. "Ireland."  
  
The elf looked at a list and then back at Holly. "Name?"  
  
"Regan Branch," she said instantly, the voice in her head supplying the name.  
  
"ID?" he asked.  
  
Holly froze. "Don't have any," she said. "Running away. Already ditched it."  
  
The elf grinned at her, a cold smile that didn't reach his eyes and almost made Holly shiver. "Then you'll fit right in. Can you fly a pod?"  
  
"Of course," Holly snapped.  
  
"That'll be thirty bucks," he said, holding out a grimy hand.  
  
"Oh, shit," Holly thought. "Where am I going to get that?"  
  
The elf grinned nastily at her, knowing what she was thinking. "Don't have it, do you?"  
  
"Like I said, I'm running away," Holly replied.  
  
The elf seemed to consider this for a bit. "I suppose I can make an exception, but I'm warning you: don't try this again," he snapped. "Go in. You'll see what to do."  
  
Taking a deep breath, Holly stepped into the dark chamber behind the elf. She let her eyes adjust to the light before going on.  
  
"How may I help you?" a slimy voice said from Holly's right.  
  
She jumped and turned to the source of the voice. A sprite this time, his green skin glowing eerily in the dim light. "I-Ireland," she stammered. "And a pair of wings."  
  
The sprite smiled evilly at her, revealing half rotted teeth.  
  
"What am I doing?" she thought suddenly and considered running back to headquarters, apologizing to Root and going back to work.  
  
"Oh no you don't," the voice said.  
  
"The wings'll be an extra twenty," he sneered.  
  
"See? I have to go back," she told herself.  
  
"He's a sprite, Holly," the ever-present voice said. "A *sprite*."  
  
Holly inwardly flinched as she realized what she had to do, but resigned herself to the task. She gave the sprite her most pathetic and needy look as she said, "I'm afraid I'm a little light. Could you possibly help me?"  
  
"It's working," the voice said at the sprite's look. "No sprite could possibly resist helping a beautiful elf."  
  
"Well . . ." he trailed off.  
  
Holly sighed dejectedly and gave him a puppy dog look, inwardly hating herself for it. "It's just this once . . ."  
  
The sprite couldn't help but smile to himself. How could he possibly resist her? "I suppose just this once . . ." he said, leading her over to a rack of wings. He unhooked an ancient pair of Dragonflies, Holly's least favourite model, not that she could complain. "I expect these back in top condition," he warned and walked over to a pod. "This is your pod. Equipped with all the modern technology."  
  
Holly grimaced. Modern technology from maybe fifty years ago. But, again, she couldn't complain. She went in and strapped herself into the seat. "When's the next flare coming?" she asked.  
  
"Just about now," the sprite said and Holly felt the pod begin to move forwards. It rocked and pitched against the tunnel floor and Holly yet again wondered what she had gotten herself into. The point of this trip wasn't to die. She took a deep breath and let her natural instincts take over. The huge column was looming in front of her, getting closer by the second. Holly closed her eyes for a fraction of a second as she felt the pod tip over the edge and spin down into the abyss.  
  
"Oh, god, I'm going to die," she thought to herself, looking at the monitor.  
  
"No you're not. Don't panic. You can feel the flare coming," the voice inside her head said quickly, willing her not to loose her head.  
  
It was true. She could feel the flare. In seconds, it had engulfed her and she was riding probably the biggest flare she had ever felt to the surface. When it eventually tapered out, Holly was only about fifty feet away from the landing dock and easily coasted to it. She sent the grippers out at exactly the right moment, securing herself to the dock. She released the harness holding her into the pod and stepped out, breathing the clean surface air. Well, cleaner than the stale air down in the tunnels. The humans had poisoned it so much-  
  
"Stop thinking negatively," the voice in her head demanded as Holly walked out of the tunnels holding the Dragonflies safe against her and into the surface. "Relax. You're on vacation."  
  
"Vacation . . . yeah, sure. Why not?" Holly thought to herself as she randomly wandered around.  
  
"Hey . . . wait a second," the voice in her head said. "Doesn't that look familiar?"  
  
Holly looked at the wall again. She had been about to turn away form it as the last thing she needed was to come into contact with humans. But it did look familiar. Too familiar . . .  
  
"Oh, shit," she said out loud, realizing where she was. "Why the *hell* is there a tunnel this close to here?"  
  
"It's illegal, remember? The LEP thought they shut it down years ago . . ." the voice whispered nastily. "So, what are you going to do about being so close to here? You know you could easily fly over the top and go wring his neck."  
  
"Not a chance," she snapped, convincing even the voice.  
  
"Then why not go talk to him? See how he's doing?" the voice pestered.  
  
"No," Holly repeated. "I'm not going there ever again."  
  
"Why not go talk to him? You need someone to talk to," the voice suggested.  
  
"I AM *NOT* GOING TO GO ASK ARTEMIS FOWL FOR HELP!" Holly yelled aloud and then realized her mistake. "Shit," she whispered, strapped on the wings and flew to the nearest tree a second before a guard came out to see what had happened. When he didn't see anything, he went back to his post approximately ten feet away.  
  
"Shit," Holly mumbled again, looking at the sky. Apparently everything had taken longer than she had thought. There were the faintest traces of light peeking over the horizon.  
  
"Come on," the voice urged. "You can't stay out here during the day. You can go to Fowl, spend the day there and leave. Do the Ritual and go back down. Nobody will think the lesser of you because nobody will *know*."  
  
"*I'll* know," Holly insisted.  
  
There was more light now, coming faster and faster.  
  
"You need to survive!" the voice yelled. "Do you want to die?"  
  
"No . . . I don't," Holly whispered out loud. That was how she found herself knocking on the front door of Fowl Manor, praying that somebody was home.  
  
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Hmmm . . . I really hope that wasn't too out of character on Holly's part. I know it might be, but it's interesting, don't you think? Besides, you never know what people, or fairies in this case, might do under huge amounts of stress. Wouldn't *you* want to run if there were a group of terrorists after you? 


	8. Chapter Eight : All Together Now

Disclaimer: I own, of course, nothing.  
  
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As Holly waited for somebody to answer the door, a very unwelcome thought entered her head.  
  
"What if *he's* the one who's been trying to kill you?"  
  
"He knows the rules. New game. He can't do that," Holly instantly told herself, but started to get worried.  
  
"He's a human. He can do whatever he wants," the voice reminded her.  
  
"No. He is *not* responsible for this," Holly insisted. Considering that she actually had no idea if this was true or not, the voice left her alone, knowing that she didn't need any help getting nervous.  
  
"Oh, shit," Holly thought to herself. "What if it is him? I can't use my mesmer . . . don't have enough magic left for that. Well, too late now."  
  
"Who's there?" Butler called into the night, not looking down.  
  
"Umm . . . Down here," Holly stammered, using all of her energy to keep her voice under control. This was *not* the time to go to pieces.  
  
Butler looked down and blinked. "Captain Short?" he asked incredulously.  
  
Holly nodded and glanced at the sky. It was almost dawn. "I hate to rush you, but can I please come in?"  
  
Butler moved aside to let her in and quickly closed the door behind her. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Umm . . ." Holly stammered, inwardly flinching at using the word "umm" twice in a row. "I . . . well . . ."  
  
"Would you like something to eat?" Butler asked, noting how weak Holly seemed.  
  
"Yes, thank you," Holly said gratefully and followed the giant manservant into the kitchen.  
  
"What would you like?" he asked.  
  
"Hang on a sec," Holly replied, struggling to get herself seated in the human-sized chairs. Eventually she managed it and said, "Some fruit?"  
  
"There's some leftover fruit salad from last night, if you'd like that," Butler offered.  
  
"That sounds great," Holly said and gratefully took the huge bowl Butler handed her as well as the oversized spoon. "Do you have anything smaller?" she asked sheepishly.  
  
Butler's brow furrowed. "There might be some small spoons leftover from when Master Fowl was a child," he said and began to look through drawers. Eventually he pulled out a small spoon made for a toddler. "Here," he said, handing the new spoon to Holly and taking the old one back. "I assume you can to talk to Master Fowl?"  
  
Holly nodded uncertainly. "I guess. I came for shelter."  
  
"Why are you up here in the first place?" Butler asked.  
  
Holly felt herself blush slightly. "I . . . umm . . . well . . ." she stammered, not liking the fact that she had lost the ability to formulate sentences.  
  
"Or would you rather tell Artemis?" Butler suggested gently.  
  
"I guess," Holly repeated doubtfully.  
  
"I'll go get him," Butler replied and left, leaving Holly to her huge bowl of leftover fruit salad.  
  
*  
  
Artemis' brow was furrowed in concentration. He had been working on this program since he had woken up at five, an hour ago, but he couldn't get this one part to work. He read over the code again, trying to find what was wrong.  
  
"Sir?" There was a knock on the door.  
  
"Can it wait, Butler?" Artemis asked, still scrolling slowly through the seemingly endless code.  
  
"I'm afraid not," the manservant said, opening the door.  
  
Artemis leaned back in his chair angrily. "What is it?" he snapped.  
  
"Captain Short is here to see you," Butler told him. "I believe she has run away."  
  
"Captain Short? Impossible," Artemis replied, but closed the code and looked at his cameras. There she was, sitting at the kitchen table, looking like a doll somebody had left out. A doll that was having difficulties eating leftovers.  
  
"You said she ran away?" Artemis asked, getting out of his chair.  
  
"It appeared that way to me, sir," Butler said. "Unless I am mistaken, she has been through quite a lot. Be gentle."  
  
Artemis didn't say anything as he left the room and walked to the kitchen. He stood in the doorway for a couple of moments before making his presence known.  
  
"Good morning, Captain Short."  
  
*  
  
As soon as Root recovered from his bout of shock, he called Foaly.  
  
"Has Captain Short walked by?" he asked nervously.  
  
"Yeah, she just left," Foaly replied. "What happened? She looked really upset."  
  
Root swore under his breath. "Nothing. I'll be down in a second." He hung up and quickly went down to the Ops booth where Foaly let him in.  
  
"What happened?" the centaur asked.  
  
"She left. She doesn't want anyone to get hurt if there are any more attempts to kill her," Root explained.  
  
"But she has to stay here!" Foaly protested. "She could stay in the Ops booth with me-"  
  
"She's already gone!" Root snapped.  
  
Foaly quickly brought up the cameras that surrounded and were inside the LEP. She wasn't anywhere. "I recommend letting her cool down. She has to calm down eventually. She'll either come back here, go to your place, mine, or some other close friend's, possibly a motel."  
  
"They're already looking for her," Root said and recapped what had happened last night.  
  
Foaly whistled. "Well, she'll eventually turn up," he said, although he didn't sound as sure of himself anymore. "If she's not back by tomorrow, we can start a search or something."  
  
Root sighed. "I guess," he said and went back to his office. He opened his desk drawer, reaching for a cigar, but then thought better of it. He started gnawing on one of Foaly's carrots.  
  
*  
  
Holly had been aware of his presence since he had walked down the stairs, but hadn't said anything. Now, she slowly turned around to face him. "Good morning, Artemis Fowl."  
  
"I take it there's some reason for you coming here other than to just say hello?" he asked, walking over to the table and sitting down opposite the elf. She really did look tiny surrounded by his human sized life.  
  
"I needed shelter," she replied, leaving it evident that there was something else.  
  
Artemis eyed her. Her clothes were dirty and torn in some places and she had large bags under her eyes as if she hadn't slept in the past couple of days. She looked . . . beaten. He hadn't seen her like that before. "What on earth had happened to make her look like this?" he asked himself. Butler had said it looked like she was running away, which was definitely true.  
  
"Well, Captain, I can give you shelter and food for today, but unless you tell me why you came here, I am afraid I can't let you stay any longer than that," Artemis eventually said.  
  
"Two nights," she bargained. "I just need to stay above ground until there's a full moon."  
  
"I take it you need to complete the Ritual?" he asked and was rewarded with a nod. "Why can't you go below ground?"  
  
"I'm on vacation," she replied, looking back at the fruit salad.  
  
This was so obviously a lie, Artemis wondered momentarily why she would bother to say it. Was it possible that she was *afraid* to tell him? "Quite likely, actually," he thought to himself. But he wasn't one to give in easily. "One night. I might extend my offer if you tell my why you're here, but other than that, I'm afraid I can. For my own safety, of course."  
  
Holly looked back at Artemis. "Are you aware that I had a sister?" she asked him.  
  
Artemis was taken aback. Why was she asking this? "No, I wasn't."  
  
"She died ten years ago," Holly said carefully, watching his face for any recognition.  
  
"I'm sorry," Artemis replied, still confused *Be gentle* . . . Butler's words echoed through his head.  
  
"Would you like to know *how* she died?" Holly asked him.  
  
"If you would like to tell me," Artemis responded, refusing to let his confusion show on his face.  
  
"She was killed in a terrorist attack," Holly replied. The only reaction she got from Artemis was one of surprise and confusion. She relaxed slightly. He hadn't done it.  
  
"I'm sorry," Artemis repeated.  
  
"Thank you," Holly replied and went back to eating.  
  
Artemis watched her closely. She had told him that because she was looking for a reaction. His had satisfied her. What was going on? "Captain, considering the circumstances, I'm afraid I must insist you tell me why you're here."  
  
Holly had been afraid of this. She couldn't tell him.  
  
"Why not?" the voice in her head asked.  
  
Holly sighed. "Fine," she snapped at the voice. "There was another terrorist attack a few days ago," she said carefully. "I almost died. My apartment was blown up." She paused.  
  
Artemis didn't say anything, merely watched the internal debate she was going through.  
  
"I had been staying with a friend," she finally continued. "But I felt that I was putting him in danger so I left. The next day I said that I couldn't stay at work until the terrorist was caught since I would be putting everyone at risk. I was ordered to stay but left anyways. I came up illegally, so I can honestly say I didn't know I was by Fowl Manor until I saw the wall. The sun started to come up so I needed shelter. I felt I didn't have a choice so I came here."  
  
Artemis stared at her. "Fascinating story," he said dryly and noted Captain Short's look of panic when she thought he wouldn't believe her. "Considering that I'm putting my life in danger, letting you stay here even for one day as I promised is an enormous act of hospitality on my part." He paused for a moment, thinking. "But since your situation is far worse than my own and since nobody knows you're here, I suppose you can stay until you have completed the Ritual, but no longer. Understood?"  
  
Holly nodded. "Thank you," she replied and turned back to the fruit salad. "I think I'm done," she said and yawned. "Do you have anywhere I can sleep?"  
  
Artemis smiled, thinking of the last time she had stayed in Fowl Manor. "The room you stayed in when we first met is still in working order, but I believe I can come up with something more comfortable. Follow me."  
  
Holly got up, followed Artemis up the grand staircase and into what appeared to be a guest room.  
  
"I'm afraid the furniture will be too large for you, but-"  
  
"No, it's fine," Holly interrupted and all but pushed Artemis out of the room. She kicked off her boots and collapsed on the bed. She fell asleep instantly.  
  
*  
  
"Interesting," Artemis commented as he went back into his study where Butler was waiting for him. "You were right. She is on the run."  
  
"Why?" Butler asked. "She doesn't seem the type to run away from her problems."  
  
"I wouldn't have thought so either, but I believe it is justified in this case," Artemis said and then added, "But if she didn't tell you why earlier, it isn't my place to do so now. She said she will be staying here for two days, although she might want to stay longer. Mother won't be back from visiting Father in the hospital until next week, so that should work out."  
  
"Is there anything you need?" Butler asked.  
  
"Yes. I need not to be disturbed," Artemis answered. Almost as an after thought, he said, "If the Captain needs anything, give it to her."  
  
"Yes, sir," Butler replied and left, closing the door softly behind him.  
  
*  
  
When Root finally got home form another unproductive day at the office, he collapsed on the couch in his living room, already noticing how empty it felt without Holly. She had only been there a couple of days, but it already seemed as if the house was too big.  
  
"Like after Nichkola died," the voice in his head prompted.  
  
"No, because then I was in love with her and had spent the past thirty years of my life with her," Root snapped.  
  
"And you aren't in love with Holly? What about that dream?" the voice asked him.  
  
"It was just a dream!" Root roared in his head.  
  
"You seemed much calmer when Holly was here," the voice pondered.  
  
"I had other things to worry about," Root spat.  
  
"And you don't know that she's missing?" the voice asked. "Interesting."  
  
"No, I do!" Root replied, frustrated. "Different things! Things like where she is!"  
  
"Which is why you're more irritated, right?" the voice questioned. "Or is it that Holly's not here?"  
  
Root thought. "I don't want to loose one of my best officers," he finally replied.  
  
"Is that all she is? Really, Julius, I thought you knew better than that," the voice replied.  
  
"Fine. I don't want to loose one of my friends," Root revised angrily.  
  
"Closer, but not quite," the teacher voice said, finally making an appearance. "What is she really, Julius?"  
  
Root put his hands to his head. He was getting a headache. "She is really Captain Holly Short, one of the best officers in the LEP and one of my closest friends. Only friends, for that matter."  
  
The voices sighed. "We're disappointed in you," they said at the same time and left.  
  
Root got up to take some medicine. He couldn't think properly when he had a headache.  
  
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There's chapter eight. Again, I hope it's not too out of character. 


	9. Chapter Nine : Here, There and Everywher...

Disclaimer: Yet again, I own nothing.  
  
A/N: Even if you have decided you don't like my fic, please review!!!  
  
Note: The idea of the tracer implanted into the wrist is NOT mine!!! It belongs to becca8 and you can read more about it in her story Suspicions, which I highly recommend.  
  
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Holly woke up in the huge bed more than a little disoriented. She sat up, confused, then fell back on the bed, remembering what had happened and where she was. Why was it again that she had come here?  
  
"To survive," the voice reminded her. "If you had stayed out, then you would've been seen since you known you don't have enough magic to use your shield."  
  
"Ah, yes," Holly thought to herself as she climbed beneath the covers, pulling them up to her chin and snuggling beneath them. She felt more than a little dwarfed by the huge proportions of everything, but found it oddly comforting.  
  
"And you know why that is?" the voice asked. "It's because you're being taken care of and it's high time you let somebody else take over."  
  
"True, true," Holly agreed, too tired to argue.  
  
"You really shouldn't be sleeping," the voice warned her. "What if you miss the full moon?"  
  
"Then I'll do it next month," she mumbled out loud and fell back asleep.  
  
*  
  
Root walked into the Ops booth at exactly nine o'clock after sitting in his office for the past two hours eating Foaly's carrots and thinking.  
  
"Alright, Foaly. You've had your twenty-four hours. It's high time we started looking for her," Root snapped upon entering the Ops booth.  
  
"Good thing she was one of the ones who had the tracer put in," Foaly said and began typing a number into his database. He was referring to a microchip tracer that he had recently invented. Fairies participating in the test case had had the chip inserted into their wrists. It was much less of a hassle than the old, clunky wrist watches and it couldn't be stolen.  
  
Root leaned over Foaly's shoulder. "Is it working?" he asked impatiently.  
  
Foaly stared at the screen curiously. "Well, that depends on what you mean by working. If you mean is it omitting a signal, then yes, it's working. If you mean does the signal make any sense, then you're out of luck."  
  
"Where's it coming from?" Root asked impatiently.  
  
"Ireland," Foaly said. "Fowl Manor."  
  
"Impossible," Root replied. "Fowl wouldn't have dared kidnapped her again. And there's no way she would've gone on her own."  
  
"I dunno," Foaly said. "This isn't wrong. She must've gotten stuck in Ireland somehow and needed shelter."  
  
"Holly wouldn't have done that," Root snapped.  
  
Foaly turned around so he was looking Root directly in the eyes. "You don't know her, Julius. Just because she stayed with you for a couple of days doesn't mean you know everything about her. For instance, what's her favourite colour?"  
  
"I don't have any idea, but-"  
  
"It's dark green," Foaly replied and returned to looking at the computer screen. "I'm going to try to establish a link."  
  
"Oh no you're not," Root snapped. "You're going to check to see if the equipment is working first."  
  
"I already know this end is working fine. The only way to see if Holly's locator is working is to call Fowl Manor," Foaly replied angrily, quickly getting fed up with Root. "I'm not stupid, you know."  
  
Root mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, but didn't say anything.  
  
"Do I have his majesty's permission to call?" Foaly snapped.  
  
Root grunted.  
  
"I'll take that as a yes," Foaly said and dialled the number.  
  
*  
  
Artemis was in his study working when a large image of Foaly, the Ops booth and a very angry Commander Root popped up on the screen.  
  
"Fowl? Are you there?" Foaly asked.  
  
"Yes, I'm here," Artemis replied, leaning back in his chair. This would be interesting.  
  
Holly chose that moment to knock on the door of Artemis' study. "Fowl? Are you in here?"  
  
"One moment gentlemen," Artemis said and got up, opening the door. "Holly, I'm not sure if you want to come in. Foaly and your commander just established a contact with my computers." Artemis could tell that she had just woken up by the way she tried to process the information and figure out what to do.  
  
"Oh. I . . . umm . . ." she started and cursed herself again loosing the ability to formulate sentences.  
  
"Short? Are you there?" she heard Root's voice yell at her.  
  
Holly rolled her eyes. "I guess I better go talk to them," she told Artemis and went over to the computers.  
  
"Would you like me to stay?" Artemis asked.  
  
"I don't really care," she told Artemis, trying to have a normal conversation with him over Root's yells.  
  
"Then I'll leave. When you finish, hit the Escape key," Artemis said and left, closing the door behind him.  
  
Holly climbed into his giant chair and rolled her eyes again at Foaly, who smiled back at her. Root hadn't stopped swearing at her since she had come in.  
  
"Would you like me to tell you what happened?" she finally interrupted.  
  
Root almost looked surprised, as if he had forgotten she was there. Foaly snickered. Root turned around and glared at him before addressing Holly. "Yes, Captain. I'd *love* to hear why you're in Fowl Manor."  
  
"I needed shelter," she told him, remembering what the voice had told her when she had first woken up. "If I hadn't come here, some human would've spotted me."  
  
"What about your shield?" Root barked.  
  
Holly felt herself begin to shrink in the chair. "I don't have enough magic," she confessed softly, bracing herself for the lecture Root would surely give her.  
  
"I take it that's why you're in Ireland?" Root asked dangerously.  
  
Holly nodded. "I'm going to complete the Ritual as soon as we finish our conversation."  
  
Foaly looked at her. "Fowl's been rubbing off on you. You're starting to sound like him."  
  
Holly felt herself blush slightly. "I guess," she said.  
  
"Short, I want you to go do the Ritual and come back below ground *immediately*. Then you can tell me how you went above ground without Foaly knowing."  
  
"Yessir," Holly mumbled.  
  
"You can also tell me why you didn't wait until tonight to go up since you know when the full moons are," Root added.  
  
"Yessir," she repeated.  
  
"And then you can tell the Counsel why after this you *still* fell like you deserve a promotion," Root finished up.  
  
Holly cringed. "Wasn't it you that suggest me?" she asked tentatively.  
  
"What?" Root snapped.  
  
Holly gained strength as she spoke. "Well, I didn't know you considered promoting me until you told me in the hospital. So *you're* the one who should tell the Counsel why you think I still should get a promotion."  
  
There were a couple of minutes of silence, Root having been momentarily shocked into silence. Eventually, he spat, "Then you can tell the Counsel why you deserve to stay in Recon at all."  
  
"Do you have any leads?" Holly asked, seemingly out of the blue.  
  
"Short, that has nothing to do with-"  
  
"Yes it does," she interrupted. "If you *still* haven't done anything about the terrorists, then maybe you should also tell them why you should keep your job. Even if you don't have any ideas, you could at least check out Frond like I asked you to."  
  
Foaly stared clapping. "Nicely done, Holly. Ten out of ten."  
  
Root spared a moment to shoot Foaly a withering glance before returning his gaze to Holly. "I don't know why you're still here," he yelled. "You have little or no respect for me or for the rules, you go around staying in the houses of mudmen that you *know* are dangerous-"  
  
"You want to know why?" Holly yelled at him, finally loosing her patients. "I'm still here because I'm one of the best officers in Recon, remember? You told me that! Or have you gotten so old that your memory is that bad?"  
  
"That's it, Short! I'm pulling you down to Traffic right now!" Root roared at her, his facing turning more purple than had ever been seen before. He grabbed a small notepad from his pocked and a pen and began making it official.  
  
"Who're you going to bring up? Frond?" Holly challenged, knowing that she didn't have anything to loose. "The number one suspect?"  
  
"She is not a suspect!" Root yelled at Holly.  
  
"Yes she is!" Holly screamed and hit the Escape button as hard as she could. She sat fuming in Artemis' chair for a couple of minutes before finally getting up and leaving the study. She walked back into her own room, grabbed the Dragonflies she had "rented" from the illegal shuttle port and flew to the front door where she thought Butler would be. She was right. "I'm going to go do the Ritual," she told him.  
  
"Will you come back before you go home?" Butler asked.  
  
Holly nodded. "But if anybody from the Lower Elements asks, no."  
  
Butler was about to question her, but decided against it. Holly did not seem one to cross at the moment. "I'll tell Artemis," he said and left.  
  
Holly quickly flew out of the manor, breathing the cold air in huge gulps. She was soon calmed down enough to consider her situation. She had no idea where the nearest hotspot was and she wasn't about to call Foaly to ask. Eventually she flew as high as she could and spotted a river slightly north. She flew to it and scanned for an ancient oak. Right before she was about to give up, she spotted one and quickly flew down to it. Holly dropped to her knee and began searching the ground for an acorn. It wasn't difficult. She jogged over a couple of meters and planted the seed. She waited. The magic then started flowing through her arm, bringing with it the seriousness of what she had just done.  
  
"D'Arvit," she swore under her breath and quickly flew up again. She went back to Fowl Manor as fast as she could and knocked on the door.  
  
Butler answered. "Artemis is in his study if you want to talk to him."  
  
"Thanks," she said and went to the guest room she had been staying in, looking for anything that she might have brought with her. It wouldn't do to forget something important. But there wasn't anything so, still flying, she went to Artemis' study.  
  
"I take it you're leaving?" Artemis asked.  
  
Holly nodded. "Thanks for letting me stay," she said.  
  
Artemis nodded. "You're very welcome, Captain Short."  
  
"Goodb-"  
  
Holly was interrupted by the sound of a knock on the front door of Fowl Manor. She had left the door to the study open thinking she would be leaving immediately, but now it proved useful for another reason. She and Artemis could hear exactly what was going on in the main hall.  
  
"-need to see her!"  
  
"D'Arvit," Holly swore under her breath. She would recognize that voice anywhere.  
  
"I'm afraid Captain Short has already left," Holly heard Butler tell Root.  
  
Holly sighed. "I oughta go. Goodbye, Artemis," Holly said and left, flying a few inches above the ground.  
  
"Goodbye, Captain," Artemis told the door of the study that Holly had closed on her way out.  
  
"I'm here, I'm here," Holly said upon entering the hall.  
  
Root opened his mouth to start yelling at Holly, but Butler interrupted.  
  
"If you two are going to duke it out as loud as you can, you have to leave," Butler said. "Master Fowl doesn't want to be disturbed."  
  
"Fine," Root snapped and grabbed Holly by the arm, pulling her out of the house. Once they were outside and Root still hadn't said anything or let go of her arm, Holly started to get worried. She had already known that she was getting kicked out of Recon, but if Root wasn't yelling at her, or saying anything, something was seriously wrong.  
  
"Sir?" Holly said tentatively.  
  
"Shut up," Root snapped at her.  
  
Holly complied instantly. This was not the time to get him any angrier than he already was. She tried to shake her arm loose, but Root only tightened his grip. She considered telling him that he could let go of her, that she wasn't planning on going anywhere, but decided against it since that would be disobeying the "shut up" order. Root continued to hold onto her arm until they got to the shuttle port roughly fifteen minutes later and dragged her into a shuttle. She sat down on the seat across from him and countered his mud brown gaze with her own hazel one. She would've backed down immediately if she had seen anger, but instead she saw something she couldn't quite place. So she watched him, trying to figure out what he was thinking.  
  
"Commander, I-"  
  
"I don't care," Root said in an eerily calm voice. "We can talk about it back in headquarters. In my office."  
  
Holly nodded and settled back in her seat, wondering if this was how Mulch Diggums felt every time he was arrested. She searched for the voice in her head for some sort of comfort, but it wasn't there.  
  
"Maybe that's what I forgot at Fowl Manor," she asked herself, expecting an answer. There was none.  
  
They sat in silence for the short ride to the Lower Elements and the shorter walk to Root's office. Once inside and Root was seated behind his desk and Holly was in front, he asked, "Well?"  
  
"I needed to do the Ritual-"  
  
"So you went above ground on the night before the full moon," Root said, still sounding too calm. "Why?"  
  
"Well, sir, I wasn't actually planning on doing the Ritual. It occurred to me on the way up," Holly confessed. It would be easier not to lie. But if he didn't ask about something, like how she went up, then there was no point in bringing it up.  
  
"Then what were you planning on doing?"  
  
Holly took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy. "I was planning on staying above ground until the terrorist was caught."  
  
"How were you going to find out when the fairy was caught?" Root asked. "You couldn't possibly find out above ground."  
  
"That's when I decided to do the Ritual," Holly explained. "I was going to stay up for one night, get my magic back and then come down."  
  
"So you decided to stay at Fowl Manor during that one night," Root said.  
  
Holly nodded. "I didn't have a choice."  
  
"And how did you get to the Upper Elements without Foaly or Customs knowing about it?" Root asked.  
  
This was the question Holly had been dreading. "I took an illegal pod form an illegal shuttle port," she told him, looking down at her hands which were folded neatly in her lap. "That's also where the wings came from."  
  
"Short, look at me."  
  
Holly complied, slowly lifting her head until she was again staring directly into Root's eyes.  
  
"Why?"  
  
Holly almost smiled. She could answer this one. "I was afraid that somebody would get hurt because of me," she said. "But mostly I was afraid of getting hurt myself. I know it's selfish, but it's the truth. I ran away, sir."  
  
Root stared into Holly's eyes and Holly thought momentarily that Foaly had said she sounded like Fowl. "Maybe," she thought. "But Root seems to had gotten Fowl's power of reading minds."  
  
Nobody said anything for the next minute. The single minute turned into two, which turned into five, which turned into ten. After almost fifteen minutes of silence, Root finally spoke.  
  
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Well, there it is! Evil cliffy, I know, but that's ok! The important part is I finished it! 


	10. Chapter Ten : I'm Looking Through You

Disclaimer: As usual, I own nothing.  
  
A/N: THANK YOU SO MUCH TO MY REVIEWERS!!!  
  
And if you have any ideas, I would still like to hear them.  
  
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Root had been thinking about what to say for the past ten minutes and he still hadn't come to a conclusion. He fully understood what Holly was talking about and why she had done it, but that didn't mean it was acceptable. He also felt the immense relief to have her back safe and didn't want to let it impair his judgement. All in all, he didn't feel like he was qualified to decide what to do with her. But he had to, of course. Because he was the commander.  
  
"Congratulations, Short. You've officially got me stumped," Root finally said. "I have no idea what to do with you."  
  
Holly looked up, her eyes wide with surprise. This isn't what she had been expecting at *all*. "You're not going to fire me?" she asked.  
  
"I don't know," Root repeated. "Believe me, nothing like this has happened before. There's no precedent or anything in the Book to fall back on."  
  
"I find that difficult to believe," Holly replied. "Something like this *has* to have happened before."  
  
Root shook his head. There were a few more minutes of silence before he said, "I'll keep you in Recon, but I wouldn't be expecting a promotion anytime soon."  
  
Holly stared at him in amazement. "You're not going to fire me?" she repeated.  
  
"Apparently not," Root snapped at her. He could quickly feel his usual personality returning and lost the feeling of having Holly back. "Go to the Ops booth. I want you to stay in there."  
  
"Not again!" Holly yelled in exasperation. "How am I supposed to work in the Ops booth? How am I supposed to talk to Frond in the Ops booth?"  
  
"You're *not* supposed to talk to Frond!" Root shouted back. It was almost comforting to have returned to the usual shouting matches with her. "*Nobody* is supposed to talk to Frond!"  
  
Holly glared at him with a mix of anger and fear of what would happen if the terrorist wasn't caught. "Please," she asked and realized that she had almost begged. "Please," she said in her normal voice. "Just talk to her."  
  
Root sighed and rested his head in one of his hands. "Fine. I'll talk to her. But I have no evidence against her and no reason for her to be a suspect."  
  
"Thank you!" Holly said happily, feeling as though a heavy weight had been lifted from her. She left, going as Root had requested the Ops booth.  
  
"Why are you so happy?" Foaly asked sceptically after he had let Holly in. "You've just been confined to the Ops booth . . . again."  
  
"Yeah, but Root is gonna talk to Frond," Holly explained. "I *knew* that if I pestered him enough, he would finally listen to me."  
  
"Shall we watch?" Foaly asked and zoomed in on the camera in Root's office. He added sound and he and Holly settled back to watch.  
  
*  
  
"You wanted to see me, sir?" Frond said as she walked into Root's office. She was obviously pleased with herself that the commander wanted to see her.  
  
"Sit," Root snapped gruffly. He felt better. This was how life was supposed to work. Him yelling at fairies.  
  
Frond sat, tossing her blonde curls over her shoulder as she did so.  
  
*  
  
"I hate her," Holly mumbled under her breath.  
  
Foaly glanced at Holly. "Why? Because she's flirting with Root?"  
  
Holly shot Foaly a look that could kill. "No, because she's a blonde bimbo and thinks that her looks and money can get her everything."  
  
*  
  
"I'm assuming that you know that Captain Short's apartment was blown up," Root said.  
  
"Of course, sir," Frond replied.  
  
"Are you aware of when it happened?" he asked.  
  
Frond's brow furrowed. "Somewhere around ten, right?"  
  
"Nine forty-five," Root snapped.  
  
"That sounds about right. I probably didn't hear about it until ten," Frond explained.  
  
*  
  
"Hear about it? You did it, you little-"  
  
Foaly put a hand on her arm. "Listen."  
  
Holly grudgingly complied.  
  
*  
  
"Certain fairies think that you might be involved," Root said, carefully omitting Holly's name.  
  
Frond's eyes widened in surprise. "I have no idea they might think that. I was working."  
  
"Would that check out if I asked Rains?" Root asked, referring to the Sprite who worked in the cubicle next to Frond's.  
  
"Yes, of course," she said instantly. Root studied her. Something didn't seem quite right. But maybe Holly was just rubbing off on him.  
  
"That's all," he said and returned to his papers.  
  
"Yessir," Frond said and left, flipping her locks one last time before closing the door behind her.  
  
*  
  
"See?!?" Holly yelled. "I told you so!"  
  
Foaly sighed. "Holly, that proves nothing."  
  
"Call Root! Tell him to question Rains!" Holly said excitedly.  
  
Foaly sighed but complied. After he hung up, he said, "My, my. Isn't this your lucky day? Root's taking your side. He also thinks something might be off."  
  
"Good, but is he going to talk to Rains?" Holly asked.  
  
"Yes," Foaly replied.  
  
*  
  
"Sit," Root snapped at the nervous looking sprite.  
  
The sprite sat. He knew he wasn't going to be brought up into Recon anytime soon, so he had no idea why he was here. That could make anyone nervous.  
  
"Do you remember what you were doing from nine thirty to nine forty-five on April 21st?" Root asked him.  
  
The sprite nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, sir. I was reading writing down my report from the previous night."  
  
"Was Frond there?" Root asked.  
  
The sprite's brow furrowed. "I don't think so. She said she had to go home because she had forgotten something."  
  
*  
  
"See?" Holly yelled as loudly as she could. "I *was* right! It *was* Frond!"  
  
Foaly couldn't argue. There was finally some concrete evidence against her.  
  
*  
  
"Thank you," Root replied. "You can go now."  
  
As soon as the sprite left, Root walked down to the Ops booth.  
  
"See?" Holly yelled for the third time in the past couple of minutes.  
  
"Holly, it doesn't prove anything," Root said wearily. "It's something to go on, but we can't prove anything."  
  
"But can't you at least do *something* about it?" she asked, almost desperately.  
  
"I can do something," Root told her. "But whatever that something is, it will have to be carefully thought through."  
  
"I know that," Holly snapped.  
  
Foaly had been watching this entire exchange with an eyebrow raised. He couldn't help but think that there was *something* between the two, although what he couldn't place. Oh, well. He could bug Holly about it later. It was apparent that she would be spending a lot of time in the Ops booth.  
  
"What do you suggest I do?" Root asked angrily, although it seemed that he was actually curious about what Holly thought. "We can't just go down and accuse her outright of blowing up your apartment. Besides, the little evidence we have only supports out case for this time. We have nothing to connect her to the terrorist attack ten years ago."  
  
Holly's eyes gleamed. "I have an idea, but I'm not sure if you'll like it or not."  
  
"Well?" Root snapped.  
  
Holly told them.  
  
Root felt a slight smile begin to creep across his face. "That might work. That just might work."  
  
*  
  
Trouble Kelp was in the break room pouring himself a cup of coffee when Holly came in. "Hey," he said, smiling slightly. "Did you get my flowers?"  
  
Holly nodded. "Thanks," she replied, also smiling.  
  
"Sorry I didn't have a chance to talk to you before now," he apologized. "I've been really busy."  
  
"So have I," Holly replied. "Trouble, could you do me a huge favour?"  
  
"That depends on what it is," Trouble replied, taking a sip from his coffee.  
  
"Well, I have an idea that might help capture the terrorist and I need your help," Holly replied.  
  
"Then, yeah, sure. What is it?" Trouble asked.  
  
"All you have to do is . . ."  
  
*  
  
Trouble walked down the hall to Lili's cubicle telling himself over and over again that this was for the good of all. He knew why he had to do it and not some other fairy, but he still didn't want to.  
  
"Hey, Lili," he said, leaning against the doorway of her cubicle.  
  
Lili spun around in her chair and when she saw who it was, a slight blush started to creep up her neck. "Hi," she replied.  
  
Trouble walked into the cubicle and perched himself on her desk. "Did you hear about Short's apartment being blown up?"  
  
"Yes . . ." Lili said carefully. "Why?"  
  
"Well, whoever did that has a lot of guts," Trouble told her. "And is pretty brilliant since they haven't been caught."  
  
"Yes . . ." Lili replied.  
  
"I was just wondering if you knew who the elf was," Trouble asked.  
  
"I might. Why?" Lili asked.  
  
*  
  
"Bull's-eye," Holly whispered from the Ops booth.  
  
*  
  
"Well," Trouble replied, now being careful himself. If he screwed this up, he'd be in some serious trouble. "I'd really like to get to know somebody that brave and smart."  
  
Lili perked up. This was a chance that she had been waiting for since she met Trouble. She stood up so she was directly in front of him. "Well, what if I told you that *I* was the one who blew up Short's apartment?" she asked him.  
  
Using all of his self-discipline to stay in character, he reached out and stroked Lili's cheek. "Then I'd ask you if you wanted to be my girlfriend."  
  
"I did it," she whispered. "And if I had the chance to do it again, then I would."  
  
*  
  
Back in the Ops booth, Holly let out a triumphant shout. "I knew it!" she yelled. She turned around and started poking Root emphatically in the chest. "I told you so! I was right!"  
  
*  
  
Trouble slipped off the desk and, still struggling to stay in character, pulled Lili into an embrace. He ran his hands along her arms and brought them around to her back while kissing her, willing her not to try and deepen it. But, of course, she did. So, while frenching Lili Frond, trying not to push her away in disgust, with lightning speed he reached into his own pocked, flipped out the handcuffs that he always kept handy, put them on Frond and stood in front of the doorway, preventing her escape.  
  
Frond stared at him in shock. Then she regained the power of speech. "I HATE HER!" she yelled in Trouble's face. "I DID IT AND I'D DO IT AGAIN IF I COULD!"  
  
Trouble stared at the elf in front of him in amazement. Even though he hated Frond, she had always seemed so cool and pulled together. Now she was the opposite. She was yelling as loud as she could about how much she hated Holly and deserved her position. Her normally perfect curls were quickly becoming frizzy and jumbled. Her blue eyes were filled with hatred and, frankly, Trouble welcomed the sight of Root, Holly and Foaly.  
  
"You did it!" Holly said, her voice happy but filled with a satisfaction stronger than Trouble had ever seen before. Then again, the fairy who had killed her sister and almost herself was finally caught, so he reasoned that she deserved it.  
  
He didn't notice that Frond had fallen silent until he saw that Holly's gaze was no longer directed at him. Instead she was staring at Frond, who was matching her gaze. There seemed to be a sort of electricity in the air and if anyone broke the silence, something unnameable would occur. He wasn't the only one who realized it, though. The growing crowd was silent, something unheard of in the LEP.  
  
After almost five minutes, Holly left without ever having said anything to Frond.  
  
"Alright, that's it. Break it up," Root finally said, breaking the silence. When nobody listened to him, he roared, "I said get out!" Everybody except for Trouble, Foaly and Frond left.  
  
"I oughta go talk to Holly," Foaly said and left.  
  
"Well, let's take her down," Trouble said, grabbing Frond by the arm. She opened her mouth to start yelling again, but Root glared at her with enough venom to shut her up. Trouble practically dragged Frond down to the few cells that were in the basement of headquarters for emergencies such as this one with Root following, hand resting noticeably on the triblaster hanging from his hip. Trouble closed the doors of the cell and turned to Root. "Glad that's over."  
  
Root nodded. "Me, too."  
  
*  
  
Foaly found Holly sitting at her desk, head in her arms, most likely crying.  
  
"She's finally caught," Foaly said gently, going up next to her. "You won't have to think about her anymore."  
  
Holly looked up and Foaly saw that he was right. "She killed my sister and tried to kill me," Holly said, wiping her tears away. "How am I supposed to look at her again?"  
  
"You won't have to," Foaly pointed out. "She's going to jail, most likely Howler's Peak."  
  
"There'll be a hearing," Holly said. "And I'll have to go to testify against her."  
  
"But don't you *want* to send her to jail?" Foaly asked.  
  
"Yes, but I feel sorry for her in a way. If she was driven to murder so she would get a higher position in the LEP . . ." Holly sighed. "I *do* feel bad for her, even though I know I shouldn't."  
  
"You should feel whatever you want," Foaly told her. "After everything that's happened, I'd be happy with any sort of reaction. If you didn't feel *anything*, then I'd be worried."  
  
Holly smiled at him. "Yeah, I guess."  
  
"I know I'm not Root, and I'm glad that I'm not, but I'd say you can go home if you want," Foaly said.  
  
Holly looked surprised. "Why would I want to do that? The terrorist has been caught; there's no reason to leave. I still have to work."  
  
Foaly looked at his watch. "It's almost time to go anyways."  
  
Again, Holly was surprised. "It is? What time is it?"  
  
"Five thirty," Foaly replied.  
  
"Wow . . ." Holly trailed off. "It seems much earlier."  
  
"I know," Foaly replied. "But if you think about it, it doesn't. You were in Fowl Manor, did the Ritual, Root came to get you, you and Root and a lengthy meeting where neither of you said anything, Root talked to Frond, then Rains, then you got your idea, Trouble did it and it worked. A lot has happened."  
  
"Mmm . . ." Holly replied and yawned. She almost laughed. "I guess my body realized it, even if my brain didn't."  
  
"Then go home," Foaly told her gently. "You need the rest."  
  
"You aren't allowed to give orders," a gruff voice said from behind Foaly.  
  
Holly and Foaly both turned around to see Commander Root standing in the doorway.  
  
"She needs the rest," Foaly said.  
  
"Be as it may, Holly leaves in a half hour anyways, so it doesn't make a big difference," Root pointed out.  
  
"But-"  
  
"He's right, Foaly," Holly said, leaning her head on folded arms that were resting on the desk. "I can sleep here just fine."  
  
Foaly snorted and looked at Root for a reaction. He was slowly turning purple.  
  
"Short-" he started, but was interrupted by Foaly.  
  
"Leave her alone," Foaly told Root. "She deserves to rest."  
  
"She can rest in a half hour *after* work!" Root snapped.  
  
Holly shifted so she could watch the two argue.  
  
"Jesus, Root! The elf that killed her sister and almost her was just arrested and you're saying she still has to work? Give her a break!" Foaly yelled.  
  
"I know what's best-"  
  
"Would you two just stop arguing and pick something?" Holly tried to snap, but was too tired. "I don't really care what I do, but you're giving me a headache."  
  
"Go home," Foaly said at the same time Root told her to, "Stay here."  
  
Foaly glared at Root. "How about a compromise. She can leave at five forty- five."  
  
Root sighed and massaged his temples. "Fine," he snapped and stormed off to his office.  
  
Holly smiled slightly at Foaly. "Thanks."  
  
Foaly glanced at his watch. "You're lucky. We spent so much time arguing that you only have to stay for another five minutes."  
  
Holly's smile grew. "And that's just about the time it takes me to get ready," she said and stood up, looking at her desk for anything that she might need and saw the Dragonflies. "What do you suppose I do with these?" she asked.  
  
"Did you get them at that illegal shuttle port?" Foaly asked.  
  
Holly nodded.  
  
"Then I'd give them to Root," Foaly told her and went back to the Ops booth.  
  
Holly sighed and trumped down to Root's office and knocked.  
  
"Come in," he called out.  
  
Holly walked in. "I got these at the illegal shuttle port and Foaly said to give them to you, so here," she said, put them on his desk and left. She glanced at her watch. Two more minutes. "Oh, screw it," she thought and left.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Wow! That was long! Hope you like it! 


	11. Chapter Eleven : She Loves You

Disclaimer: Yada-yada-yada. I don't own them. Get off my case.  
  
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Holly was on the couch in Root's living room reading "Gambling With Time", a book by the author of "Time Holders", when Root came home.  
  
"Why aren't you downstairs?" he asked gruffly.  
  
Holly looked up, a little surprised. "I thought that since we're friends, or at least I think of us that way, we might want to spend some time together?" She said it as a question.  
  
"Alright. Fine," he snapped and went into his bedroom.  
  
Holly stared after him, hurt. Of course she had plenty of friends, but she thought that Root was quickly becoming one of her *good* friends. And even if he wasn't, what right did he have to yell at her now? He should be *glad* for her.  
  
Holly sighed and went back to reading, not admitting to herself just how much it hurt.  
  
A few minutes later, Root came out of his room and said, "Holly?"  
  
"If you don't consider us friends, then it's Short," Holly said shortly, not looking up from her book.  
  
"No, I do. I wanted to apologize for not letting you go home early and for yelling just now," Root replied. "I was reminded of something right before I usually leave. That's why it's eight forty-five."  
  
Holly glanced at the clock. She hadn't even noticed. "Reminded of what?"  
  
"In a week from Friday, there are promotions, so I have to . . ."  
  
Holly went back to reading, ignoring the rest of what he was saying. *She* certainly wasn't getting a promotion, not after what she had done.  
  
"Holly, did you hear anything I just said?" Root asked about half way through his explanation. When she didn't answer, he sighed. "Holly . . ." Still nothing. He waved a hand in front of her face.  
  
"What?" she snapped. "I know I'm not getting a promotion, so there's no real point in me listening to you, is there?"  
  
"Yes, actually, there is," Root replied, sitting on the couch next to her. "I *have* to bring somebody up to Lieutenant because I might be retiring soon-"  
  
"What?" Holly gasped. "You can't retire!"  
  
"Why not?" Root spat. "I've been working in the LEP since I was your age and believe me, I'm much older now. I have easily have enough money to retire and, frankly, I don't want to *always* have to think about work."  
  
"But you can't retire!" Holly insisted. "The LEP needs you!"  
  
"No they don't," Root replied. "They need a good commander. That's why we need to promote a very good Captain to Lieutenant so they can be further trained for becoming a commander."  
  
"Who were you thinking of bringing up?" Holly asked. "Considering the whole terrorist thing, Trouble might work nicely."  
  
"I was thinking of you," Root replied.  
  
Holly stared at him. "What? After me going up to the Upper Elements on an illegal shuttle, staying with Artemis Fowl and all that, you *can't* promote me!"  
  
"I don't know yet," Root repeated. "But, even though I know you skipped this part when you were promoted to Captain, there *is* a dance right after and I'm going to have to help organize that at the same time deciding who to bring up to Lieutenant and convince the Counsel to go along with my decision."  
  
"Well, I do feel bad for you, but I know you've done a fine job in the past," Holly assured him. "Rather, I've *heard* that you've done a fine job. I wouldn't be caught dead at a dance as you well know."  
  
"And *you* know that if you get promoted to Lieutenant, then it would no longer an option," Root told her.  
  
"What? Why?" Holly asked, surprised. "That's not fair!"  
  
"Yeah, well go bug the Counsel about it," Root snapped. "So if you get the promotion, I expect to see you there, if only for one dance."  
  
"If I go, I have to *dance*?" Holly asked him incredulously. "You're starting to put up a very good case for not wanting a promotion."  
  
Root smiled slightly. "That's all well and good, but if I were you, I'd buy a dress."  
  
"I *can't* be promoted, though," Holly repeated in exasperation. "Not after what just happened. You said so your self!"  
  
"If I had the choice, I would wait as well, since I know the Counsel won't go for it. But the Counsel is insisting that if I'm even *thinking* about retiring, then I need to bring up a Captain to Lieutenant to train. And, frankly, when I retire, I want you as Commander."  
  
"Thank you, sir," Holly mumbled, looking down.  
  
"At any rate, I should start planning it," Root replied and went into his room.  
  
Holly stared after him, still attempting to process the information. Root retiring. Her getting promoted. A dance. She shivered. She *hated* wearing any sort of dress and hadn't worn one, aside from at funerals, since she was about ten. Which meant that she couldn't dance. At all.  
  
"But that's ok," Holly told herself. "It's just one dance. One. If, of course, I get it."  
  
*  
  
Holly glanced at the clock. It was twelve. She smiled. On Fridays, lunch was her favourite part of the day. As always, she checked her email before going down to the break room. She groaned. She had five emails, four of which she could put off. One was from Root.  
  
Holly sat down again and opened it. He wanted to talk to her. "Great," she mumbled to herself as she walked down to his office. Except for the conversation about promotions, he had barely said anything since Frond had been caught, preferring to stay either in his office or his room. In fact, he had been so antisocial, Holly had taken to spending more time in the basement rather than waiting for one of the five-minute segments when he wasn't in the middle of something.  
  
"Come in," Root called out when she knocked on his door.  
  
Holly walked into his office and sat down on the chair, trying to ignore the aching in her stomach that told her she really needed to eat. "Yes?" she asked, probably a little more impatiently than was needed.  
  
"As you know, promotions are coming up," he started.  
  
"Yeah, yeah," Holly mumbled inaudibly under her breath. Of course she knew. She had only spent every minute thinking about them since Root had told her about his possible retirement.  
  
Root glared at her. "If you want to be promoted, I'd recommend not interrupting."  
  
"Yessir," Holly said, refusing to her let excitement show on her face.  
  
"Considering how hard you've been working and your high number of successful recons, you are being promoted," Root said, moving a piece of paper on his desk towards Holly. "Congratulations, Lieutenant Short."  
  
Holly stared at the paper, not quite daring to believe it. She didn't pick it up, somehow thinking that this was all a cruel joke. "Th-thank you, sir," she eventually stammered, finally taking the paper.  
  
"As it says on the paper, the official ceremony is in exactly a week, followed by a dance which you *need* to go to, Short, even though I know you don't want to," Root said, the last part louder than necessary.  
  
"Yessir," Holly said.  
  
"You can go now," Root replied.  
  
"Thank you again," she said, gave him a quick salute and left. The first place she went was the Ops booth. "Foaly, lemme in!" Holly said excitedly.  
  
"What is it this time?" Foaly asked as he let her in. "You stuck here again?"  
  
"No!" Holly waved the paper in his face. "I'm being promoted!"  
  
Foaly rolled his eyes. "Holly, that's not new news. Everybody knows that Root wants you to be Commander when he retires, which means that he has to train you. Just to let you know, when Root was being trained by Commander Lark, he never let up on him. *Never*. Just a warning."  
  
"He never lets up on me anyways," Holly replied. "And it's new news to me."  
  
"Well, congratulations," Foaly said, smiling. "And believe me, I look forward to the day when you're Commander."  
  
"Well, I don't think that will be any time soon," Holly replied. "I mean, he *does* have to train me."  
  
Foaly shrugged. "Whatever. I'm assuming he told you that you have to go to the dance after?"  
  
Holly grimaced. "Yes. And he said I have to actually *dance* at least once."  
  
Foaly shrugged. "That's the price of being a lieutenant."  
  
"Foaly, are you aware of the fact that I have never once danced and haven't worn a dress since I was ten?" she asked him.  
  
"I'm sure that's true, but I'm also sure that you'd rather wear a dress and dance one dance once than not be Lieutenant," Foaly told her.  
  
"Yeah, I guess, but the problem with dancing, aside from the fact that I don't know how, is that I don't have anyone to dance with," Holly said.  
  
"Are you in love?" he asked.  
  
"What?" Holly snapped. "That's none of your business!"  
  
"Well, if you are, then dance with him," Foaly suggested.  
  
"No . . . that's not an option, Foaly," Holly replied.  
  
"You don't have to *tell* him that you love him. You just have to *dance* with him," Foaly pointed out.  
  
"I can't dance with him. Believe me," she insisted.  
  
"Who is he?" Foaly asked.  
  
"There is no way in earth that I'm going to tell you," Holly snapped. "You'd tell him instantly, and if not him, the rest of the LEP."  
  
"Come on, Holly. I promise I won't tell him. In fact, I can set it up," Foaly offered. "I can tell whatever band there is what song to play when and go get him. You can pretend that you have no idea that you already knew about it."  
  
"No," Holly replied and was about to walk out when Foaly asked,  
  
"It's Root, isn't it?"  
  
Holly turned around, her facing turning to a hue that could possibly be redder than Root's had ever been. "No. I am not in love with Julius Root," she said, her jaw clenched.  
  
"Really?" Foaly pestered. "Methinks she doth protest too much. It's from Shakespeare, if you didn't already know."  
  
"You're insane!" Holly yelled.  
  
"You love him, Holly. I'll see what I can do about it," Foaly replied.  
  
"Foaly . . ." Holly warned. "If one word of this leaves your mouth to anybody else . . ."  
  
"I knew it!" Foaly crowed. "It's so obvious!"  
  
"Promise me," Holly growled.  
  
"Promise," Foaly said and let Holly out of the booth.  
  
It was only then that she realized what she had said. Holly felt herself blushing and a slow smile creeping up her face. "I can't believe it . . . I love him."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ok, ok. I know this is really, really, really short, but that's ok because if you add 10 (the number of pages in my last chapter) and 6 (the number of pages in this chapter), you get 16 and if you divide that by 2, you get 8 and that's the average number of pages in my chapters, so it's ok, right? Right? RIGHT???? *takes a deep breath and calms down* Sorry about that. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. 


	12. Chapter Twelve : I'm Happy Just To Dance...

Disclaimer: NOT MINE!!!!  
  
A/N:  
  
(1) Thank you so much to my reviewers! My total number of reviews for all of my fics combined is 394 so I just need six more to make it 400!  
  
(2) This is the last chapter unless I decide to write an Epilogue, so let me know if you want one.  
  
(3) The first dress is based on one that I saw Halle Berry wear in The Golden Globe Awards 2003.  
  
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Holly woke up Saturday morning determined to go buy a dress and get it over with. It was the last thing she wanted to do, which was precisely why she had to because if she didn't do it *now*, she wouldn't do it tomorrow and she would end up without a dress on Friday.  
  
Holly sighed and got out of bed. She stumbled half asleep over to the bathroom, took a quick shower and immerged fully awake. She walked over to the dresser and opened her underwear drawer. She pushed aside all the loose socks on top, looking for the underwear she knew was buried beneath it. Instead of feeling underwear, though, she felt a button.  
  
"What?" she mumbled to herself while taking the drawer out of the dresser, dumping all of her underwear and socks on the floor and pressing the button. The board that was the bottom of the drawer started to come out. Still pushing the button, Holly lifted the bottom out. She gasped. There was what appeared to be a dressed folded neatly and tucked into the drawer. Holly took it out and unfolded it.  
  
The dress was made of pale blue silk and was floor length. It had a semi- low neckline that Holly figured would show off exactly the right amount. There was also a long shawl. Holly bit her lip in indecision. Should she really wear this dress? It had been Nichkola's, but Root *had* said that she could wear her clothes. Of course, that was only until she could get some of her own.  
  
"There is, of course, the question of if it even *fits* you," the voice in her head said, finally coming back.  
  
"Oh . . . right," Holly replied. She quickly threw on some underwear and tried the dress on. Oddly enough, it fit her perfectly. "Why would it fit me?" she asked herself.  
  
"That isn't the question. The question is, are you going to wear it or not?" the voice asked.  
  
"I don't know!" Holly almost yelled. "If I knew, this wouldn't be an issue!"  
  
"Call Foaly. He knows Root better than you," the voice suggested.  
  
Hmm . . . That *was* a pretty good idea. Holly changed out of the dress, rewrapped herself in the towel and called Foaly.  
  
"Yeah?" Foaly answered.  
  
"Hey. It's Holly," she said.  
  
"Why, hello! What is it?" Foaly asked, obviously glad to hear her.  
  
"Well . . . umm . . . I found this old dress of Nichkola's and it fits me and I want to wear it to the dance but I don't know if I should," Holly said all in one breath. "At one point, he said that I could wear Nichkola's clothes, but that was when I didn't have any of my own. And you know him better than I do, so what do you think I should do?"  
  
"Wait a second. Back up. Who's Nichkola?" Foaly asked.  
  
"Am I on speaker phone?" Holly asked.  
  
"Gimme a second . . . Now you're not," Foaly answered. "Switched to headphones. Now who's Nichkola?"  
  
"Root's dead wife," Holly told him.  
  
"So *that's* her name!" Foaly said. "I've been trying to find out since I knew he had once been married."  
  
"Just don't tell him I told you," Holly requested. "Do you think I should wear the dress?"  
  
"Where'd you find it?" Foaly asked.  
  
"Umm . . . In a secret compartment of the underwear drawer in the dresser that I'm using," Holly told him, again all in one breath.  
  
"Hmm . . ." Foaly seemed to consider. "Well-" He interrupted himself to take a large bite out of something crunchy.  
  
"Foaly, I thought Root confiscated your carrots," Holly said suspiciously.  
  
"He did. I got more," Foaly explained. "And about the dress, I'd say go for it. If he gets angry at you, you can just say that you did have his permission."  
  
"Thanks," Holly said and hung up. She carefully folded the dress and put it back where she had found it, along with the shawl. Holly dumped all of her underwear back into the drawer again and quickly got dressed.  
  
"Now what are you going to do?" the voice in her head asked. "Because last night you had told Root that you were going to go shopping for a dress this morning, so what are you going to tell him?"  
  
This presented an interesting question. "Well . . . I could just go out . . ."  
  
"And return with no bags?" the voice asked sceptically. "Not likely. You could go down to the drug store and get some makeup, though."  
  
"D'Arvit," Holly muttered out loud. She had forgotten about makeup. She had *never* worn any before and it didn't seem like such a good idea to make her first time right before she would get promoted. "Well, I don't *have* to wear makeup," she told herself.  
  
"Are you *sure*?" the voice asked.  
  
"Yes," Holly snapped at herself. "I'll be fine in just the dress."  
  
"Then what are you going to do?" the voice repeated.  
  
"Umm . . ." Holly trailed off. What *should* she do? "I could go wander around the mall and buy like a three dollar cloth or something so it will look like a dress . . ."  
  
"Not likely," the voice told her. "You hate the mall."  
  
"Well what do *you* suggest I do?" Holly snapped at herself.  
  
"Buy yourself a dress instead of wearing Nichkola's old one," the voice suggested.  
  
"Don't have enough money," Holly told herself. It was true. She hadn't known what she was going to do. Finding Nichkola's dress had been a real stroke of luck.  
  
"Ask Root," the voice recommended. "He already bought you all of those other clothes. Just tell him that without a dress you can't go to the dance so it's really his fault."  
  
"Good idea," Holly complimented herself and walked upstairs to go ask Root for money. She found him in the kitchen. "Good morning," she said cheerfully.  
  
"Morning," Root grunted from behind his newspaper.  
  
"You know the dance?" Holly asked him.  
  
"Mmm," Root replied, making it obvious that he was still reading.  
  
"Well I need money," she told him.  
  
Root finally put the paper down. "Why?"  
  
"A dress," Holly told him. "Because since I don't have one, if I can't buy one then I can't go so it will really be your fault."  
  
Root smiled slightly at her. "You've thought this through, haven't you?"  
  
Holly nodded her head and smiled hopefully.  
  
"How much do you need?" he asked.  
  
"Umm . . ." Holly trailed off. "I have no idea?" she said as if it was a question.  
  
Root sighed. "I could come-"  
  
"No!" Holly interrupted. At Root's look, she said, "I mean, no. I haven't ever bought a dress and I don't want to look idiotic." Holly mentally bit her lip, praying that he would leave her *idiotic* explanation alone. In truth, she wanted it to be a surprise.  
  
Root raised an eyebrow. "Alright," he said slowly.  
  
"Yesssss," Holly though to herself.  
  
"So would you like me to give you my credit card?" he asked sceptically.  
  
"Umm . . . ok," Holly replied and cursed herself for using the word umm too many times. She didn't say umm. She just didn't.  
  
Root got up and Holly trailed him to his front door. He reached into the drawer in the table that was next it He pulled out is wallet and took out his credit card. "Keep in mind that I have ways of finding out what you do," he warned her as he handed her the card.  
  
"Yessir," Holly said. Root laughed. "What?" she asked him suspiciously.  
  
"I thought we were friends," he said.  
  
"And?" Holly asked.  
  
"If we're friends, then out of work you don't have to call me sir," Root told her.  
  
"Oh!" Holly replied, blushing slightly. "Yes, I know that. It's just habit."  
  
"Well . . . Have fun," he said lamely as Holly strapped on the Hummingbirds she had borrowed when she had gone shopping before and left.  
  
"Thanks!" she called after as she flew away.  
  
*  
  
Holly woke up one week later an hour earlier before she usually did. The previous week had passed relatively uneventfully except for Frond's trial where she had been pronounced guilty and sent to Howler's Peak for life. Today she didn't have work since everyone involved in setting up the dance, stage and building would all be busy, as well as the fact that anybody else would just get in the way. Frankly, Holly had never seen the big deal in decorating it, but she had never been a big one on fancy occasions.  
  
"Ok . . . so what am I going to do during the twelve hours before the ceremony?" she asked herself.  
  
"Read?" the voice suggested lamely. "Watch TV?"  
  
"As if," Holly muttered under her breath, but picked up "Gambling With Time" and started reading. She hadn't gotten around to finishing it, what with finally getting back to work, Frond's trial and getting ready for her promotion. There was an uncanny amount of paper work that needed to be filled out as well as a test, which she passed with flying colours.  
  
*  
  
Exactly five, forty-five minutes, before she had to leave, Holly snapped off the TV and started getting ready. She had been doing absolutely nothing since she had woken up and the only thing she was grateful about was that Root had been at the LEP all day getting things ready so she didn't have to worry about running into him.  
  
"Okay," she told herself. "Calm down. Shower first." Even though she had already taken a shower that day, Holly had decided earlier that day to take another one so she could start off fresh. Holly climbed into the shower and quickly turned the heat up. She had a bad habit of setting the water too cold to begin with. She glanced at the various shampoos and conditioners that had been Nichkola's. She really did have a very good selection. Holly grabbed a bottle of shampoo at random, quickly washed her hair and then selected a conditioner and conditioned it. After quickly washing herself, she stepped out of the shower and dried off.  
  
Holly left the bathroom still in her towel and went over to the bag that contained the dress she had bought as well as the makeup that she couldn't resist. Holly figured that if she really screwed up, she could always wash it off again. Carefully as to not wrinkle the dress before she had worn it, Holly put it on and almost took it off again. Even for her standards, this was an ok dress, but she *did* hate dresses.  
  
"That doesn't matter. It's just one night," she told herself as she walked carefully over to the vanity that she hadn't touched until now. Holly dumped the makeup on it and began sorting through it, deciding to use the easiest first.  
  
"What's the easiest again?" she asked herself almost frantically.  
  
"Calm down. It's only a dance," the voice in her head told her soothingly. "Try the lipstick first."  
  
"Ok, I can do that," she told herself and started putting it on.  
  
*  
  
"Calm down, calm down," Holly repeated to herself as she paid the driver of the taxi that she had come in. "Just calm down." Holly took a deep breath and walked up the front steps of the LEP and into the hallway. She had to admit, as far as decorations went, it *did* look pretty nice. There were strands of tiny lights along the walls as well as little clusters of holly. She flinched. Holly *hated* it when people used holly as decorations.  
  
"Calm down," the voice told her. "It's just a plant."  
  
"Right . . . just a plant," Holly told herself as she walked down the hall and into the cafeteria where the ceremony and then the dance would take place. "Wow . . ." she mumbled under her breath. The long tables that were usually there were no where to be seen, replaced instead with tables with either two or three chairs around them, except for one larger table where Holly saw the Council was sitting.  
  
Holly glanced at the clock. Five minutes of six. Perfect. She made her way to a table in back, hoping no one would see her until she had to go on stage. Even though she had just managed to get slightly used to the dress, she wasn't eager for all the other fairies that knew she never wore either dresses or makeup to start in on her until absolutely necessary. She scanned the room for Root, but didn't see him.  
  
"Thank God," she whispered to herself.  
  
"You're glad you're not *seeing* him when, if all goes to plan, you'll be *dancing* with him soon?" the voice in her head asked.  
  
"Yep," Holly told the voice. Pushing it and all other thoughts away, she started looking for other fairies she knew just in case one was headed her way. None were.  
  
"Okay," she told herself. "At least one thing is going right."  
  
"Attention, attention please," an important looking elf said from where he was standing in the centre of the stage. "I'd like to start by thanking all of the fairies responsible for making this all possible . . ."  
  
He started reeling off a long list of names and Holly toned him out, instead looking for either Root or Foaly. Where *were* they?  
  
"And now," he eventually said after finishing the list, "the elf who will be presenting the badges, Commander Julius Root!" There was applause as he stepped on stage.  
  
"D'Arvit!" Holly whispered out loud. This was not good. This was not part of the plan. She was *not* supposed to have Root see her for the first time on stage as he was handing her the Lieutenant badge.  
  
"Thank you," Root said after a couple of seconds. "First, those being promoted to Corporal."  
  
As Root read off the list, Holly looked at him. He looked much better in a tux than in the standard LEP uniform she usually saw him in. It seemed to make him look thinner and almost younger. Holly then realized that she better pay attention unless she wanted to miss her name being called and struggled to pay attention. After a seemingly endless time, Root finally said,  
  
"And lastly, those being promoted to Lieutenant. Holly E Short."  
  
Taking a deep breath, Holly stood up and started to walk what now seemed like an eternal distance to the stage. She felt eyes on her and could've sworn she heard murmurings, although she reasoned that it was just her nerves.  
  
"Stay calm," the voice told her. "And don't trip."  
  
"Oh, thanks," Holly snapped at herself. "Something else to worry about." But suddenly there was no time to worry as she stepped up on stage and took the badge from Root.  
  
"Congratulations," he said warmly, shaking her hand.  
  
"Thank you," Holly smiled. She went off the stage as quickly as she could without running and returned to her seat. Once she was sitting, she felt a considerable amount calmer. It was over. She didn't have to worry about it anymore.  
  
"Yeah, but you *do* have to worry about what Foaly has planned," the voice in her head reminded her.  
  
"I don't care," she told the voice. "I did it. I'm officially Lieutenant Short."  
  
Holly watched as the two other fairies that were becoming Lieutenants went up on stage and then it really *was* over. Everybody started to get up and walked over to congratulate everybody else as they went into the room which had been prepared for the dance segment. Holly wasn't actually sure what it was used for otherwise, but decided that it didn't really matter since she had more important things to worry about.  
  
"Holly! You did great!" she heard Foaly's voice say form behind her. Holly turned around and saw Foaly standing in front of her. "Congratulations again, of course," he added as an after thought.  
  
Holly laughed and was surprised to hear how nervous it came out. "Thanks," she said.  
  
"You look great as well," Foaly said. "Is that Nichkola's dress?"  
  
Holly shook her head. "I decided that I wanted my own," she told him.  
  
"Well, it really suits you," Foaly told her. Quieter, he added, "When do you want to dance?"  
  
"Soon, to get it over with," Holly said quietly, feeling as though she was part of a conspiracy of some sort.  
  
"I'll get everything ready, then," Foaly said and disappeared into the crowd.  
  
Holly took a deep breath. "Calm down," she told herself one last time before going into the dancing room. It was decorated the same as everywhere else, with strings of bell and the stupid holly, so it wasn't that big a deal. There were some tables in the back of the room and a buffet along the opposite wall. Not knowing what else to do, she headed over there.  
  
"Congratulations, Holly!" she heard a voice say from behind her.  
  
Holly turned around and saw Trouble standing in front of her, also wearing a tux, but not looking nearly as good as Root did.  
  
"That's because you're in love with Root," the voice told her.  
  
"Thanks," she smiled.  
  
"You look so different," Trouble remarked.  
  
Holly flinched. It was starting. "Thanks," she said stiffly.  
  
Trouble cocked his head, listening to the music. "Want to dance?" he asked her, holding out a hand.  
  
"Thanks, but I don't dance," she told him.  
  
"Ok," Trouble replied and walked off.  
  
Holly rolled her eyes. What was it with men and dancing? She continued to make her way to the buffet, this time with no interruptions. Holly looked at the food, trying to find something she didn't hate. Eventually she settled on a cupcake and moved off to the side, watching the other fairies dance. Again, she scanned the crowd for Root, but didn't find him. Suddenly she got worried. What if he already left?  
  
"Then you're in luck," the voice told her. "You won't have to dance. Just ask Trouble to say you danced with him."  
  
"But-" Holly started to argue, but was interrupted by the sight of Root. He was picking his way through the crowd to the buffet, not looking at her.  
  
"Go ask him!" the voice urged her. "Just ask and get it over with!"  
  
"No way," Holly argued. "Foaly said that *he'd* arrange it."  
  
"You're acting like a high school girl with a crush now *go ask him*!" the voice insisted.  
  
Holly was about to comply when she saw that Root had noticed her. He smiled at her and started to walk over.  
  
"Congratulations," he repeated once he was close enough to talk to her.  
  
"Thank you again, sir," she replied.  
  
"We're friends, remember?" Root told her. "No "sirs" out of work."  
  
"I did think this counted as 'out of work'," Holly told him.  
  
"I didn't think eating and dancing qualified as work, but . . ." he trailed off.  
  
Holly rolled her eyes. "Eating unhealthy foods I don't like and dancing count as work for me."  
  
Root laughed and Holly suddenly realized that he was looking more and more like the elf in the photograph as the night went on. "And it's barely even started yet," she thought, almost in awe. "If this is what happens when he's at dances, I might have to go more often."  
  
"Do you like the decorations?" he asked. "I wasn't in charge of food, a good thing as it turns out."  
  
"Yeah, I guess," she replied. "The holly . . ."  
  
Root seemed to suddenly realize what he had decorated with. "Oops," he said, making Holly laugh slightly. She had never heard him say "oops" before and never thought she would again.  
  
It was then that Foaly walked over to them and it took all of Holly's control not to start blushing at the look that Foaly gave her. "Having a good time?" he asked.  
  
"No," Holly replied. She glanced at Root. "But that wasn't the purpose of night, was it?"  
  
"The purpose of tonight was the promotions," Root told her. "And to keep up a good appearance. But if you have fun, then I suppose that's alright."  
  
Holly couldn't help but smile slightly. "I'll do my best not to then."  
  
"*I* know a way you might have fun," Foaly told her. "You could *dance*."  
  
Holly glared at him as inconspicuously as possible for the look he was now giving her. "I don't dance," she snapped.  
  
"Holly, you *know* you have to dance at least once," Root reminded her.  
  
Holly looked at him pleadingly. "Please can you make an exception?" she asked, borderline whined.  
  
"Sorry, but no," Root replied and started to walk off so he wouldn't get further yelled at.  
  
"Julius, wait!" Foaly said. "Since *you're* so eager to get Holly to dance, why don't *you* dance with her?"  
  
Holly was *almost* impressed with how smoothly Foaly pulled it off. It *did* seem like had just thought of it.  
  
"I mean, don't *you* have to dance as well, or is that just for Lieutenants?" Foaly asked him. "Don't you have to keep up an appearance as well?"  
  
Root turned around. "Don't call me Julius," he snapped at Foaly.  
  
"Fine, fine. *Root*, don't you have to dance?" Foaly corrected impatiently.  
  
"Well, yes, but-"  
  
"It's ok," Holly interrupted. "I can find somebody else." She ignored the fact that it felt like somebody had just punched her in the stomach and that her knees were weakening. "He's just a guy," Holly told herself. "You can find somebody else. Besides, maybe he's like you and just doesn't like to dance."  
  
Root sighed. "No, it's alright."  
  
Foaly smiled hugely at him. "Oh, good," he said and left, not before giving Holly a wink that she stored away to later punish him for.  
  
There were a few moments of silence before the song that had been playing ended and the lead singer of the band said, "This song goes out to two very special fairies," and started to play.  
  
Holly added a note to her punishment to ask Foaly about that. "Umm . . . I'm just warning you that I can't dance," she said.  
  
Root took Holly's hand and led her away from the buffet. "The first step is not knocking the food over." Holly smiled slightly and had to work very hard to control a nervous laugh. When they were a considerable amount away from the food, Root reached out and pulled her closer against him. "Then just . . . dance," he said, wrapping one arm around her waist and holding her hand with his other. Holly wasn't sure what to do with her other hand, but settled on resting it on his shoulder. She could feel herself blushing and hoped that Root couldn't see her. That would be a little embarrassing. She could also feel the way his fingers were twined with hers and the hand resting on her hip.  
  
"Calm down," she told herself. "Just dance." Holly took a breath that she hoped Root didn't notice and listened to the music. It was sung in English which surprised her, until she realized that the last song had been sung in German. Apparently the band was taking advantage of the fact that fairies could understand all languages. As Holly listened to the song, she felt herself turning redder. If the "two very special fairies" were herself and Root and Foaly had set this song up, as she suspected, it was actually rather embarrassing. The song was so mushy. But it was also easy to dance to. Holly let herself relax against Root, leaning her head on his chest, as she listened. Without realizing it, she started to hum along to the song.  
  
"Do you know this?" Root asked.  
  
"No, but I like it," she said. "Do you know it?"  
  
"No," he answered. "I don't generally listened to music this sappy."  
  
Holly felt herself flush. "I don't either. I just like the song."  
  
They fell silent again, listening to the music. The second time the chorus came, Root quoted along with it.  
  
"'There was love all around, but I never heard it singing, no I never heard it at all till there was you'," he mused. "You like that?"  
  
Holly blushed. "Yeah, I guess," she stammered. The song then ended and Holly stepped out of the partial embrace she had been in. "So that was my dance. Can I go now?"  
  
"If you want, I suppose," Root answered. Holly turned away from him and was about to leave when he said, "Unless you'd like to have another dance."  
  
Holly turned around and wondered just how red she was. "Sure," she replied and moved back into his arms. The next song was also in English and Holly wondered if Foaly had set this song up as well.  
  
//Hold me close and tell me how you feel//  
  
//Tell me love is real//  
  
As Holly settled into the rhythm of the music, she thought about just how much she wanted to hear Root tell her that he loved her. "But that's not going to happen," she told herself.  
  
"He just asked you for a second dance," the voice commented.  
  
"Go away," Holly snapped at herself and focused instead on memorizing the dance. She first catalogued how good it felt to have Root's fingers twined in her own as he held her hand and then how wonderful it felt to have his other hand on her hip, holding her against him. Lastly, she revelled in the fact that she was this close to Root, that she was leaning against him, and how her head felt resting on his shoulder. But maybe she thought too much because she had to bite her lip against the tightness that was forming in her stomach. When the song was over and they separated, she was almost glad. *Almost*.  
  
"Are you leaving now?" Root asked.  
  
"Yeah," Holly replied. "As much . . ." she searched for the correct word, ". . . fun dancing with you is, I still hate formal occasions."  
  
"Then I'll see you when I get home," Root told her and disappeared into the crowd.  
  
Holly couldn't conceal her huge smile as she rode in the taxi that was waiting outside home. She suddenly realized that she thought of Root's house as her home, which only made her smile more. Once she was *home*, she paid the driver and went quickly down to the basement where she changed into the large, *buttoned* work shirt she used as pygamas.  
  
"Now what?" she asked herself. "Root will probably wait until the whole thing is over before coming home, so he won't be back for another couple of hours."  
  
But apparently she was wrong because she heard the front door open. "What are you doing home so soon?" Holly asked him as she walked up the stairs to the first floor.  
  
He laughed. "I decided that I agree with you and it was boring," he said.  
  
Holly laughed as well. "So what were you planning on doing the rest of the evening?"  
  
Eyeing her pyjamas, Root asked, "Well, we could stay up all night and watch a movie to celebrate."  
  
Holly smiled widely. "Sounds like fun. I suppose you'll want to change?"  
  
Root nodded. "I'll meet you in the living room?"  
  
"Sure," she replied and went into the living room to wait for him. When he finally came in, he was wearing sweatpants and a loose tee-shirt.  
  
"What movie?" he asked.  
  
"I don't really care," she answered. "Actually," she added, "on second thought, a mudman movie because you rarely have to think about them since most of them they're shallow."  
  
Root looked at her oddly. "Well, you're in luck. Nikki thought the same way, so I actually happen to have a large collection of mudman movies. Any in particular?"  
  
"Something funny," she requested.  
  
Root looked through his movies until he finally pulled out one. "Have you heard of Two Weeks Notice?" he asked.  
  
Holly shook her head. "What's it about?"  
  
"It's a romantic comedy," he said, putting in the DVD. Root then went over to the couch and sat down next to Holly. "Need I say more?"  
  
Holly laughed and shook her head again. "Sounds good," she said and settled into the couch, moving slightly closer to Root again. About halfway through the movie, waking up at five in the morning finally started to take its toll on Holly and she started to drowse. By the time the movie was over, she was fast asleep.  
  
Root turned off the TV and glanced at Holly. He smiled. He took the large blanket he kept draped over the back of the couch and covered Holly with it. "Goodnight," he said softly and left.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ok, I lied. Things didn't quite work out as I though so there will be at least one more chapter. Hope you're happy. I still haven't decided about an epilogue, though, so let me know! 


	13. Chapter Thirteen : Good Day Sunshine

Disclaimer: Get off my d'arviting case! They aren't mine!  
  
A/N: If I can't finish this story either today or tomorrow, then there most likely won't be as many updates because April Vacation will be over. *glares* But my birthday is on Thursday the 29th, so I'll try to put up a chapter then to celebrate myself. But that's only if I haven't finished by then.  
  
Also thank you to all my reviewers! This story has 40 reviews and all of my stories combined have 400! Thank you so much!!! *hands out cookies*  
  
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Holly woke up nestled on Root's couch in his blanket. She smiled to herself. To *Lieutenant* Short. Holly pulled the blanket closer around herself, remembering the feeling of being in Root's arms. It was definitely worth wearing the dress and makeup.  
  
"Makeup . . . Shoot," Holly thought to herself, reached up and brushed a hand across her lips. When she looked at it, there was indeed lipstick smeared on it. "Oh, well," she thought and closed her eyes again to try to fall back asleep, even though it was most likely time for her to get up anyways.  
  
"There isn't a time to get up," the voice reminded her. "It's Saturday."  
  
"Oh, right," Holly remembered. "All the more reason to sleep in."  
  
"On the couch in Root's living room?" the voice asked her sceptically.  
  
"Yeah, sure. Why not?" Holly asked.  
  
The voice didn't respond. Holly soon fell asleep.  
  
*  
  
Holly was woken up by a loud knocking on the door. She groggily sat up as Root answered the door. He was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt and Holly suspected that it was the same one he wore the previous night.  
  
"Your furniture," the person at the door said.  
  
Holly quickly untangled herself from Root's blanket and went downstairs to get dressed.  
  
"It's about time," Root snapped. "It was supposed to have come a week ago."  
  
The deliveryman shrugged. "I only deliver."  
  
"Then you better start," Root spat and followed him out to the truck. By the time Holly had come upstairs after changing and washing off her make- up, Root was surrounded by several large boxes.  
  
"Need any help?" she asked him.  
  
"Yeah, thanks," he said and started to pick up a box. Holly hurried over and grabbed the other end. They carefully manoeuvred the box downstairs and then went upstairs for the other ones. After a couple of minutes, all the boxes were downstairs.  
  
"Now what?" Holly asked.  
  
"If you could disassemble the bed that you've been using, that would be great," Root told her as he took a pair of scissors out of the desk and started opening the boxes.  
  
"Sure," Holly said. After dumping all of her stuff off the mattress and moving it, she started to take the bed apart with the screwdriver that Root handed her. She soon finished. "Anything else?" she asked.  
  
"No, thanks," Root huffed. He was surrounded by bubble wrap, cardboard and parts of the desk.  
  
"Are you sure?" Holly asked sceptically.  
  
"Yes!" Root snapped.  
  
Holly rolled her eyes and went upstairs, wondering why all men felt the need to assemble things themselves. She wandered into the kitchen and made herself some breakfast. Deciding that she didn't really have anything else to do, she went back downstairs.  
  
"What're you doing here?" Root asked.  
  
Holly rolled her eyes again. "It's my part of the house, isn't it?" she asked him. "Besides, I thought you might like some company."  
  
"I told you I didn't need any help," Root reminded her.  
  
"And I said that I thought you might like some *company*," she repeated. "There's a difference, you know."  
  
"Of course I know," he snapped.  
  
"Really?" Holly teased. Noticing the look on Root's face, she quickly added, "Actually, there's something I've been meaning to ask you about for a while."  
  
"What?" Root asked.  
  
"When I was reading 'Time Holders', you asked to see something," Holly reminded him. "What was that?"  
  
"Did you finish the book?" Root asked.  
  
"Of course," she told him. "And 'Gambling With Time'."  
  
"Well, in 'Time Holders', there's this one passage that Nikki and I used to debate about all the time," Root explained. "I hadn't remembered that since I saw you with the book so I reread the passage. She was right."  
  
"Which part?" Holly asked.  
  
Root turned away from her. "It's not important."  
  
"Are you sure?" Holly asked, concerned.  
  
"Yes!" Root yelled.  
  
Holly didn't say anything. Instead, she went over to the bookcase and took out the third and final book in the series, "Time's End", and went upstairs to read it.  
  
*  
  
Root came up from the basement about an hour later. "I'll do the bed later," he told Holly before disappearing into the kitchen to get something to eat.  
  
"Ok," she called after him. "But next time you tell me something, you might want to wait and see my reaction!" Root didn't answer. Holly sighed and went back to reading.  
  
About five minutes later Root joined her with what appeared to be a file from work.  
  
"Root, it's the weekend," Holly reminded him. "You don't have to work."  
  
"I'm not," he mumbled without looking up from the papers.  
  
Curious, Holly leaned over his shoulder to see what he was looking at. He instantly closed the file and left. Holly stared after him, wondering what to do. Eventually she went back to reading.  
  
*  
  
Holly yawned. It was ten in the morning and she had been reading almost all day. Every time she tried to say something to Root, he walked off. Deciding that it was time to go to bed, Holly walked down stairs.  
  
"D'Arvit," she mumbled under her breath. Root had apparently forgotten about putting the bed together because it was a mess of bed parts lying around without a fully put together bed in sight. Holly sighed and picked her way to the dresser and quickly changed before going upstairs to yell at Root.  
  
"Root!" she yelled as she went upstairs.  
  
"What is it?" he snapped from his bedroom.  
  
Holly stormed into his room without bothering to knock. "I want to go to bed," she snapped at him.  
  
"Fine. Go to bed," Root told her. "You don't need my permission for that."  
  
"No, but I need you to finish putting the bed together," she corrected.  
  
Root stared at her in confusion and then cursed. "I'll do it tomorrow," he promised.  
  
"That's fine with me, but where do I sleep tonight?" Holly asked.  
  
"The couch."  
  
"No way. I slept there last night and my neck still hurts." It was true. She'd had a crick in her neck all day and wasn't eager to worsen it.  
  
"Well what do you want me to do?" Root snapped. "You want to go to bed now and I'm too tired to do it tonight."  
  
Holly considered this. "Do you have another guest room?" she asked sceptically.  
  
"Sure, Holly. I just keep spare rooms lying around the house," Root said, rolling his eyes.  
  
Holly smiled. "It was worth a shot. Do you have a cot?"  
  
"Not a usable one," Root replied. "I used to, but it's buried somewhere in the attic with one of the legs broken."  
  
"Trundle bed?" she suggested hopefully.  
  
"No," Root answered.  
  
"Sleeping bag, then. You *have* to have a sleeping bag."  
  
"Actually, I don't. I used to, but the last time I went to use it, I found that it was completely moth eaten," Root admitted.  
  
"Well what do you suggest I do?" Holly asked exasperatedly, throwing her arms up in the air.  
  
"I don't know!" Root replied.  
  
Holly slid down the wall and sat down on the floor. "I'm tired. All I want to do is sleep."  
  
Root sighed. "I was planning on going to bed anyways and since I still have the queen sized bed from before Nikki died, I suppose we could share."  
  
"Umm . . . A-alright," she managed to stammer. Holly suddenly wished she had long hair so it could obscure her bright red cheeks. She willed herself to return to her normal nut-brown colour and was positive that she failed miserably as she climbed into Root's bed. She settled down so she was facing the wall instead of Root as she heard him get up to go brush his teeth. When he returned, he turned off the light.  
  
"G'night, Holly," he mumbled.  
  
"Night," Holly said, then mentally punished herself for the squeak that came out. She tried to relax enough to fall asleep, but quickly realized that it wouldn't be an option. Resigning herself to yet another sleepless night, she started to let her mind wander. Her thoughts quickly turned to Root and all of the different reasons they might be sharing a bed other than that he hadn't finished putting her bed together.  
  
"No . . . You can fantasize about him all you want when he's not in the room and you aren't sleeping in his bed," the voice snapped at her. "Now is *not* an appropriate time."  
  
This was definitely true, but how are you supposed to *not* think about something?  
  
"Holly?" Root asked after a couple of minutes.  
  
"Mmm?" she responded, not trusting her voice.  
  
"Remember when you asked me if I still love Nichkola?" Root asked.  
  
Holly's breath caught in her throat. This time she nodded, not being capable of anything else.  
  
"Well, I finally figured it out," he said.  
  
Almost against her will, Holly rolled over so she was facing him. "Yeah?" she asked, *very* surprised to hear her voice come out normal.  
  
Root took a deep breath. "I still love her with all of my heart, but I'm not in love with her," he said, finalizing the thoughts that he had been thinking for the past couple of weeks.  
  
Holly smiled widely. "Good," she said and was about to roll over again when Root added,  
  
"I realized that I was in love with somebody else."  
  
"Breathe," the voice inside Holly's head instantly told her. "Just breath."  
  
"O-oh?" she asked shakily. "That's good."  
  
"And I called Foaly earlier today and he said that she also was in love with me," Root told her.  
  
"What?" Holly yelled. "I'm going to kill him! I can't believe he told-" Holly clapped a hand over her mouth and instantly rolled over so she wasn't facing Root anymore, bright red to the tips of her pointy ears. Instead of any number of things Root could've done, she felt him move closer to her and wrap an arm around his waist.  
  
"I know," he told her. "He asked me not to tell you, but I thought you might want to slaughter him on Monday."  
  
Almost instinctively, Holly felt herself move further back into Root's arms. "Thanks," she said. "I'll add that to my list of reasons to kill him."  
  
"I'm almost afraid to ask, but what else is on it?" Root asked.  
  
"Well . . ." Holly trailed off, wondering if she should tell him or not.  
  
"Why not?" the voice asked. "He loves you . . ."  
  
"Well, I kinda asked Foaly to arrange it so we would dance together at the dance but the song he had the band play was really sappy and I can't believe that they dedicated it to 'two very special fairies' and he also kept on winking at me," Holly mumbled all in one breath.  
  
"So *that's* what the winking was about," Root mused. "You could've just asked me yourself, you know."  
  
"I wasn't originally planning to dance with you at all," Holly admitted. "Foaly insisted on it. And then once we were actually *at* the dance, I was going to ask you, but Foaly showed up first."  
  
"Oh," Root replied.  
  
"If you don't mind telling me, when did you figure out that you weren't in love with Nichkola anymore?" Holly asked, although what she was thinking was "When did you figure out that you love me*?"  
  
"When we were dancing," Root told her. "Why do you think I asked you for a second dance?"  
  
"You wanted to 'keep up an impression'?" Holly asked, doing a poor imitation of his voice.  
  
"Well, of course there was that," Root added as an afterthought.  
  
Holly laughed softly. "Y'know, I still don't see why I had to dance. Not, of course, that I'm complaining anymore, but still."  
  
"Like I said before, take it up with the Council," Root told her. "I just do what they tell me to."  
  
"Yes, I suppose," Holly replied. She smiled. "But I can't help but think that the next dance will be at least a *little* more fun."  
  
Root smiled as well. "Yes, I should think so."  
  
Holly rolled over in his arms so she was facing him and settled in again, leaning her head on his chest like she had been when they were dancing. "Root?" she asked.  
  
"Hmm?" he replied.  
  
Holly blushed slightly as she asked, "Can I call you Julius?"  
  
Root laughed. "Of course."  
  
Holly smiled again. "Then good night, Julius."  
  
"Already?" Root asked.  
  
Holly blushed again. "Unless you'd like to show me what you did with buttons."  
  
"Holly, I'd like nothing more than to show you what I did with buttons," Root said and began to slowly unbutton her shirt, either kissing or touching her after each button. Holly moaned as Root finished unbuttoning her shirt and started greedily sucking on her breast.  
  
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Alright, alright. I know it's a little short, but that's ok because the one before it was *really* long. Please review! And let me know if you still think there should be an Epilogue, although I know I'm going to write one. 


	14. Epilogue : In My Life

Disclaimer: For the last time, I do not own them!  
  
A/N: Here's the Epilogue and after this, it's done!  
  
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"You realize," Holly asked Julius as they waited for their dessert to come at the restaurant they were at, "that I used to hate Valentine's Day?"  
  
He chuckled. "I'm not surprised since your great-grandfather is Cupid."  
  
Holly scooted her chair closer to Julius's. "Used to, of course. You know that for the past few years, I look forwards to Valentine's Day more than almost any other holiday?"  
  
"Except for your birthday," Julius said, a slight smirk creeping up his face.  
  
Holly smiled widely. "Well, yes. My birthdays are often fun."  
  
They were at the equivalent of La Maison Rouge on Valentine's Day, having secured their reservations a couple of months earlier. If a tradition can be established over five years, then it was their tradition to have dinner on Valentine's Day at La Maison Rouge.  
  
Holly was now Commander Short and had been for the past year. Both she and Julius had stayed for the entire dance.  
  
Julius reached into his pocket for what seemed to him like the millionth time that evening and fingered the small, velvet box that contained the reason why he had been nervous all night long, even though he pretended that he hadn't been. Holly had, of course, picked up on it, but hadn't said anything yet.  
  
The dessert then came, a single strawberry frappe with two straws. Holly slid her hand into Julius's as they drank together. Once they had finished, Julius asked,  
  
"Do you wan to go outside after we pay?"  
  
"Alright," Holly agreed and reached into her purse and pulled out her credit card. "Why the special occasion?"  
  
"Outside" was actually inside, but simulated to seem as if it was in the Upper Elements. There were trees, bushes, flowers and the like. The light seemed as if it was sunlight or, at night, moonlight. There were fountains and small lights that had always reminded Holly of those used at the promotion celebrations. Considering the cost to keep it running, to get in you had to pay extra. An extra that was quite large.  
  
Julius didn't say anything as the waiter collected their card and receipt and returned a few minutes later with Holly's card, which she put into her purse.  
  
"Well?" she pestered as she followed Julius outside.  
  
"I'll let you know when we're there," he told her, taking her hand in his as he led her to the back of the garden where there was a bench in front of a small pond where koi were swimming leisurely through the water that almost seemed too blue to be real.  
  
They sat down, Julius keeping Holly's hand in his own. "Holly . . ." he faltered.  
  
"Yes?" she asked softly.  
  
"Will . . . Will you marry me?" he asked, looking directly into her eyes.  
  
Holly laughed softly. "Of course." Seeing his look of immense relief as he slid the diamond ring onto the fourth finger of her left hand, she added, "Well what did you *think* I would say?"  
  
"Well, yes, but-"  
  
"I know," she said softly and kissed him. "I know."  
  
~*SIX MONTHS LATER*~  
  
Holly glanced at herself one last time in the mirror before going to wait by the door. She was wearing Nichkola's old dress, which she had discovered had been her wedding dress, despite Julius' protests to start a new beginning with a new dress.  
  
As Holly waited for her cue, she thought about the news she would tell Julius as they were being driven to the shuttle that would take them to the Upper Elements for their honeymoon. She rested the hand that wasn't holding the bouquet on her stomach, hoping that the small bulge wouldn't be too noticeable in the clingy silk.  
  
Then she put her left hand back on the flowers as she heard her cue and started walking down the aisle to where Root was already standing, smiling so much that her face ached. Not, of course, that she could help it. She stood across from Julius, not paying any attention to the minister at all, preferring instead to look at the face of the elf in the photograph that Julius had long ago transformed into.  
  
After a couple of moments after the minister had stopped talking, Holly realized that everyone was looking at her expectantly. She looked at Root frantically. "I do," he mouthed.  
  
Holly's smile widened, if possible. "I do," she said. Against her better judgement, Holly zoned out again, watching Julius. Luckily, the ever- present voice in the back of her head jolted her back to reality as the minister said,  
  
"I know pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."  
  
Julius pulled Holly into a kiss that sent both their senses reeling. When Holly finally pulled away, she threw the bouquet as hard as she could. Nobody caught it. Everybody laughed. Julius then escorted Holly out of the building and into the waiting limousine.  
  
"I love you," he said tenderly, reaching out and stroking her cheek.  
  
"I love you, too," Holly replied, taking his hand in hers and placing it on her stomach. "*We* love you."  
  
Julius' eyes widened and then he started to laugh. "Good thing I saved up all that money, then."  
  
Holly joined in laughing. "Yes, I suppose so. But you know what this means?"  
  
"What?" Julius asked.  
  
"This means that you owe me a honeymoon since they're supposed to be taken alone," she laughed.  
  
"I suppose this is why you waited to tell me? So you could go twice?" Julius teased.  
  
Holly pretended to be hurt. "I thought it was *romantic*!"  
  
Julius smiled. "Well isn't it the traditional thing to do is to make out in the back of the limousine?"  
  
"That works for me," Holly replied and started to kiss him.  
  
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Well, that's it! I hope you like it, I know I do. Had a ton of fun writing it and I hope that you also liked reading. 


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